ActiveState releases Perl Dev Kit 6.0
Major Update to Industry-Standard Development Toolkit
VANCOUVER, BC - November 10, 2004 

ActiveState, the leading provider of development tools and services for
dynamic languages such as Perl, PHP, Python, Tcl and XSLT, today
announced the release of Perl Dev Kit 6.0, the newest version of its
industry-standard toolkit for easily creating, building and deploying
applications with Perl, the powerful and popular open source language.

Perl Dev Kit 6.0 introduces graphical user interfaces for most tools,
providing visual guides to a wealth of build options. New bundles, PDK
Deployment Tools and PDK Productivity Tools, offer flexible licensing,
enabling users to cost-effectively meet their individual needs.

PDK Deployment Tools make it easy to deliver software to a broad range
of users and platforms, with new graphical user interfaces for all
application builders to simplify the creation of Perl executables.

Technical enhancements include shared library options and a dynamic DLL
loader. The deployment tools also feature PerlMSI, for creating
Microsoft MSI installation files.

PDK Productivity Tools simplify the creation of useful, high-quality
applications. New visual tools include VBScript Converter, VBScript
Converter, which gives the Perl programmer access to the vast VBScript
samples available, with an easy to use automatic translation tool. PDK
Productivity Tools also feature a graphical debugger for painless,
simple debugging of Perl scripts, and a Visual Package Manager for
administering Perl installations locally or remotely.

"Perl Dev Kit 6.0 is an exciting release; there's something for
everyone," said Matt Herdon, director, product management, ActiveState.

"We've added cool new tools, GUIs and technical improvements, and the
new packaging actually lowers the price for people just looking for,
say, the PerlApp executable builder, while still providing great value
in the complete bundle, PDK Pro Pack."

"ActiveState's PDK has allowed us to release Windows services in a way
we never could before, without releasing the source and complicating
installations but retaining all benefits of Perl," said Phillip Beazley,
president, adminware, inc.  "PDK6, with its new tools and GUI, makes
packaging and deployment even easier.  It is simply wonderful and should
not be overlooked."

Perl Dev Kit 6.0 includes the following new and improved features:

* Graphical user interfaces for most tools
Make creating executables fast and easy, with visual guides to a wealth
of build options.

* PDK Filter Builder 
The PDK Filter Builder is an intuitive tool for interactively creating
text processors that do custom filtering and replacement operations. It
can be used as a pure visual tool by simply outputting modified text, or
to generate Perl code that performs the filtering, for adding to a
toolkit or embedding into applications. Filter Builder displays the
filtered results on-the-fly, allowing rapid iterations and useful
what-if interactions.

* VBScript Converter
VBScript Converter is a powerful tool for generating Perl code from
VBScript. Capable of recognizing all popular VBScript type libraries,
including Microsoft Excel, Windows Scripting Host, Lotus Notes and more,
the converter allows developers to leverage the huge VBScript libraries
available on MSDN, other web sites, or in-house, by converting them to
Perl code for integration into larger applications. Alternatively, users
can record VBA macros with the Microsoft Office macro recorder, then
translate them to Perl for ultimate hackability.

* Dynamic DLL loader
The Dynamic DLL Loader eliminates the need to write temporary files to
the hard disk during execution of most applications, saving disk space,
reducing clean-up of temporary files and increasing security.

Availability 
PDK 6.0 is available in three editions. PDK Productivity Tools and PDK
Deployment Tools are targeted bundles, available for special release
pricing of $129.95 (regular price: $145). PDK Pro Pack combines PDK
Productivity and Deployment Tools in a single, high-value bundle, with
special release pricing of $199.95 (regular price: $245). Promotional
upgrade pricing and education licenses are also available. Launch
special ends December 10, 2004.

All versions are available now at http://www.ActiveState.com/PDK.

About ActiveState
ActiveState is the leading provider of tools for dynamic languages such
as Perl, PHP, Python, Tcl and XSLT. Over two million developers rely on
ActiveState's professional development tools, high-quality language
distributions and enterprise services. www.ActiveState.com

Media & Analyst Inquiries: 
Amy Meshulam, Horn Group 
1.415.378.1132


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