Visual Perl User Guide

Visual Perl Release Notes

Visual Perl Tutorial

		Visual Perl Release Notes

Version 1.8.1 Table of Contents Installing Visual Perl Visual Perl Quick Start What's New in Version 1.8.1 Release History License and Expiry Known Issues in Visual Perl Contact ActiveState

ASPN, the ActiveState Programmer Network, features comprehensive Perl programming resources. Check out: The Rx Cookbook, a collaborative library of Regular Expressions. The Perl Code Archive, based on the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network. ASPN's archive, combined with ActivePerl's Perl Package Manager, makes ASPN's Perl Code Archive the easiest way to find and install Perl extensions. Upgrade to an ASPN Perl membership and receive even more: The Perl Dev Kit, a suite of Perl tools that makes it easy to build and deploy applications, services and controls for the Windows platform. PerlAlert, ActiveState's weekly newsletter that keeps you informed of new Perl developments. O'Reilly Books online, delivered through ASPN Reference.

Installing Visual Perl

Hardware and Software Prerequisites

ActiveState's Visual Perl is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for Perl that runs as a plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. Before you can install Visual Perl, the following software must be installed on your system:

• ActivePerl build 618 or higher. The Rx Toolkit component requires ActivePerl build 626 or higher. You can download ActivePerl from the ActiveState web site.
• Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. Please review the System Requirements for Visual Studio .NET before you proceed with the installation. Visual Perl has no additional requirements.
• Windows Script Host must be enabled on your system. In most cases, WSH is enabled by default. To confirm, enter "wscript" at a command prompt. This should display the Windows Script Host Settings dialog. If not, refer to the above link for information on installing and enabling WSH.
• ActiveState's Perl Dev Kit version 4.1.1 build 403 or greater is required to build .NET-compliant Perl components, and Perl services, controls and applications.

Visual Perl 1.8.1 does not function with beta or Release Candidate versions of Visual Studio .NET 2002 or Visual Studio .NET 2003.

Installing or Upgrading Visual Perl

It is not necessary to upgrade or re-install ActivePerl when you upgrade to a more recent version of Visual Perl.

To install or upgrade Visual Perl:

1. Uninstall previous versions of Visual Perl.
2. Ensure that Visual Studio .NET is installed and operational on your system, but not currently running. Refer to Visual Studio .NET's installation instructions for information on installing and upgrading Visual Studio .NET.
3. Download Visual Perl. Be sure to download the Visual Perl installer that matches your version of Microsoft Visual Studio .NET.
4. Ensure you are logged in with an account that has administrative privileges. Double-click the installation file and follow the instructions in the installer.

Uninstalling Visual Perl

To uninstall Visual Perl:

1. From the Windows Control Panel, select Add/Remove Programs.
2. Select ActiveState Visual Perl and click Remove.
3. If you installed the Visual Perl license patch for an earlier version, there will also be an entry for ActiveState Visual Perl Beta x Patch in the Add/Remove Programs dialog. Select this item and click Remove.

Visual Perl Quick Start

Visual Perl runs within Visual Studio .NET. We have included sample Visual Studio solutions containing Visual Perl projects to help you get started. In the section below, you will open the sample project and begin debugging.

1. From the Windows Start menu, select Programs|ActiveState Visual Perl|Samples|Response Tracker.
2. In the Solution Explorer pane, notice the solution called "response_tracker", which contains the project called response_tracker, which, in turn, contains the program count_responses.pl. If the Solution Explorer pane is not visible in the Visual Studio .NET workspace, click View|Solution Explorer.
3. Visual Perl's default installation assumes that you have installed ActivePerl in the default directory (c:\Perl\). If this is not the case, select Tools|Options|Projects|VisualPerl, and specify the location in the Perl Interpreter Location.
4. Double click the program file (count_responses.pl) to open it in the editor.
5. Begin debugging. Set breakpoints by clicking in the grey margin to the left of the editing pane. Press F5 (Debug|Start) or F11 (Debug|Step Into) to begin, and continue through the document by pressing F11.

Use our sample solution to familiarize yourself with using Visual Perl to edit and debug Perl programs. See the Visual Perl User Guide for information about creating new solutions and projects, and using Visual Perl's advanced editing and debugging functions.

What's New in Version 1.8.1

New features:

• Folders in Projects In previous versions of Visual Perl, files could only be added to projects one-at-a-time. Visual Perl 1.8.1 adds support for importing folders containing multiple files, along with a "new folder" command for creating project folders and subfolders in the Solution Explorer window.

Major bug fixes:

• Rx Toolkit and ActivePerl 5.8 The Rx Toolkit now works with all builds of ActivePerl 5.8.
• Abandoned Processes The RepositoryServer.exe and ParseModule.exe processes were not always stopped when Visual Perl was closed.
• Drag and Drop Crashes Dragging and dropping icons onto the Solution Explorer no longer crashes Visual Studio.
• Perl 5.8 Support The Visual Perl proxy generator was incorrectly generating a "use strict '-refs';" statement, which is not supported in Perl 5.8. For Perl 5.8 compatibility, this has been changed to:
  
  use strict;
  no strict 'refs';
  

For information about individual bugs fixed in each release, see the ActiveState Visual Perl bug site.

Release History

Version 1.8: April, 2003

• Visual Studio .NET 2003 is supported by this version of Visual XSLT.
• The Visual Perl tutorial incorporates all-new examples to demonstrate:
• Visual Perl's increased integration with the Perl Dev Kit
• CGI debugging emulation
• Web services invocation
• Perl Dev Kit projects now support pre-build and post-build events. This is particularly useful for registering generated COM objects built with PerlCtrl.

Major Bug Fixes:

• Web service proxy generation in Visual Perl has been improved to support SOAP extensions in WSDL specs. The most common example of this is the way in which sample Web services at http://www.xmethods.com are exposed.
• When two different Web services are placed in the same namespace, the proxy generator now generates a new namespace with a unique name. This improves the efficiency with which the proxy and the IDE manage multiple Web services.
• Using the Modify or Repair buttons in the installer for an existing project no longer causes some loss of some functionality.
• Previously, when Visual Perl was set to use tabs instead of spaces, pressing return with the cursor positioned in the leading white space sometimes deleted characters.
• Compatibility issues between Visual Perl and PPM 3.1 have been resolved.
• The project files now store relative paths only, making it easier to move complete projects to different locations. Please note, however, that if a PerlNet project is moved from one version of the .NET Framework to another, the references in the project will still need to be manually refreshed.

Version 1.7: December, 2002

• Smart indenting now distinguishes between control structures and hash contexts, and sets indentation to the left margin during "Here" documents, POD comments and multi-line strings.
• Code Folding can now collapse POD comment and "here" document sections.
• Editor speed and responsiveness has been improved.
• The undo function will now undo auto-indentation, decreased line indentation, "Comment Selection" and "Uncomment Selection" functions, and "Format Document" and "Format Selection" functions.
• The project file format has changed. Existing projects will be automatically converted to the new format when they are opened. A backup copy of the original project will be made in the same directory as the original project file.
• Perl Dev Kit version 5 is supported, including support for the new PerlTray component.
• PDK Services and Controls The templates for creating services and controls in conjunction with the Perl Dev Kit have been enhanced to provide post build commands for installing the component. All components generated in conjunction with the Perl Dev Kit can now be debugged within Visual Studio.
• Project Properties have a new "Build Events" page, which allows specification of commands to be run before and after the project is built.

Version 1.5.1: September, 2002

• Colorizing of here documents now is fixed when changes are made to the first line after the "<<".
• The debugger is no longer confused by 'require' statements that contain embedded "/../", as in: require "foo/../NoIMeanBar/target.pl";
• Editing lines greater than 1000 characters long no longer crashes the editor.
• The uninstaller now cleans the cache files in %ProgramFiles%\ActiveState Repository\.
• Selecting large regions of text while debugging no longer crashes Visual Perl.
• IntelliSense of pure Perl modules now walks the inheritance tree, looking for other methods and properties.

Version 1.5: July, 2002

• Simulated CGI Debugging You can debug CGI programs at your workstation by simulating a CGI environment; there is no need to set up the remote debugger.
• Web Services Client Proxy Generator This feature generates a wrapper around SOAP::Lite code that makes it easy to consume Web services. Use the same standard user interface to find and attach to a Web service.
• Improved IntelliSense IntelliSense has been extended to provide statement completion for Web services defined as Web References, and Windows COM objects loaded by the Win32::OLE module (see below). Press Ctrl+J for a list of all keywords, subs, and imported package names, including Web service proxies. Press Alt+Right Arrow to complete the current word (if the existing characters are unique in the current IntelliSense context).
• Run Window Context Menu Right-click in the Visual Perl Run window to display a convenient context menu.
• Win32::OLE IntelliSense When the Win32::OLE module is brought in via a "use" statement, methods and properties for Win32 COM classes are displayed in the IntelliSense drop down lists.
• "Copy Local" option for PerlNET References References can now be automatically copied to the output directory during the build.

Version 1.5 Beta 1: June, 2002

See the description for the 1.5 final release for a list of new features included in version 1.5 Beta 1.

Version 1.2.1: May, 2002

• PDK 4.1.1 build 403 Visual Perl 1.2.1 supports the Perl Dev Kit version 4.1.1 build 403 and greater.
• Installer Stability The Visual Perl installer is more robust; fewer problems should be encountered during installation.

Version 1.2: January, 2002

• Keyword Tips Keyword-based tips have been redone. Now, after typing an open parenthesis after most keywords, a small graphic walks you through the comma-separated arguments. This is not supported for Perl keywords that have irregular call sequences, such as print and printf (which have a space between the optional file handle and the next item), or map, grep, and sort (where nothing is required between the close-brace and the start of the array operand).
• Project Properties The project property pages have been redone. There are more opportunities to select files via drop-down list boxes, rather than being required to type in the name. Projects can now move across machines easily, as most names are now relative. As long as the relative paths don't break when moving projects, the project shouldn't break.
• PerlNET Support This version of Visual Perl provides graphical access to the PerlNET compiler. Access .NET objects from Perl programs, add Perl components to .NET programs, test, and run, all within Visual Studio .NET.
• Brace Matching Visual Perl displays matching braces, brackets and parentheses in a bold font, and provides keyboard shortcuts for moving between matching braces, and for selecting the code within braces.
• Custom File Associations By default, Visual Perl associates files with the extensions ".pl" and ".pm" with the Perl language. Visual Perl provides the ability to add additional Perl file extensions.
• Statement Completion When this function is enabled, Visual Perl displays pop-up lists of methods, modules and folders contained in methods and Web services.
• Remote Debugging Ports are now user-defined, and can be configured globally, or for individual projects.
• Open Module Right-click on a Perl module name to access the "Open Document" menu item, which loads the module in the Visual Studio editor.
• Visual Perl Tutorial The new Visual Perl tutorial provides a visual tour of Visual Perl's editing and debugging features.
• Integration with Visual Studio's Help System The Visual Perl User Guide, Release Notes and Tutorial are now integrated in Visual Studio's Help system.

Version 1.1.2: November, 2001

• bug fix for Visual Perl project creation

Version 1.1.1: October, 2001

• Visual Studio .NET Release Candidate This release of Visual Perl supports Microsoft's Visual Studio .NET Release Candidate. Visual Studio .NET Beta 2 users should download Visual Perl version 1.1.

Version 1.1: October 8, 2001

• General bug fixes and stability enhancements

Version 1.01: September, 2001

• Dynamic Perl Help Perl language reference is now available through Visual Studio's Dynamic Help system.
• Perl Module Reference Embedded Perl module reference can be accessed from within the Visual Studio editor.
• Add Entries to the Task List Comments embedded in the Perl program can be automatically added to the Visual Studio Task List.

Version 1.0: August, 2001

• Source Code Control Visual Perl includes SCC-compliant source code control. If SCC-compliant source code control software is installed on your system, Visual Perl will inherit Visual Studio's source control functionality, and provide the ability to work with items stored in a source code repository.
• Format Indentation Visual Perl provides sophisticated indentation formatting that analyzes bracket constructs and indents blocks of code (or the entire document) accordingly.
• Templates This version of Visual Perl includes pre-defined program templates, which are especially useful when creating applications, services and controls in conjunction with the Perl Dev Kit (PDK).

Release Candidate 1: August, 2001

• Class View Visual Perl now makes use of Visual Studio .NET's Class Viewer. To invoke the Class View, select View|Class View. Class View is used to quickly navigate a Perl program; the Class View form shows a hierarchical view of files, packages and subroutines.

Beta 4: June, 2001

• Code Folding Visual Perl recognizes discrete block of code, and provides visual cues that indicate where blocks of code can be collapsed and expanded.
• Rx Toolkit Visual Perl beta 4 includes ActiveState's Rx Toolkit, a visual interface for building and debugging regular expressions.
• Remote Debugging Visual Perl can be used to debug Perl programs running in other processes on the same machine, on other Windows machines, and even other types of machines that have a compatible version of Perl installed.
• Improved Call Stack while debugging, the Call Stack window displays the function name, line number and file for each stack frame in the program. You can control whether to show filenames and / or line numbers by right-clicking in the Call Stack window and checking the corresponding entries.
• Hex Values during Debugging while debugging, the debugging windows (Watch, Locals, etc) now display numeric values in hex format.

Beta 3: March, 2001

• Auto-Indenting Visual Perl's auto-indenting recognizes opening- and closing-parentheses.
• Comment Block entire blocks of code can be commented and uncommented.
• Smart Selection double-clicking variable names selects the leading type indicator character; double-clicking regular expressions selects the entire expression.
• Watch Window using the Visual Studio Watch Window, you can change the value of scalar variables during debugging.
• Hover Tips context-sensitive tips are displayed as you type.

Beta 2: December, 2000

• General bug fixes and enhancements.

Beta 1: December, 2000

• First release.

License and Expiry

Visual Perl licenses can be obtained from the ActiveState web site. Two license types are available: a twenty-one day Evaluation License, and a Commercial License.

The Visual Perl End User License Agreement is displayed during the Visual Perl installation. It is also stored in RTF format in the Visual Perl installation directory (by default, c:\Program Files\ActiveState VisualPerl\doc).

Known Issues in Visual Perl

• If Visual Perl is uninstalled from a version of Visual Studio .NET that contains C++, Tools|Options|Projects|VC++ Directories will no longer display a list of directories. See the Visual Perl FAQ for instructions to repair this issue.
• In Visual Studio .NET 2002, when copying a collapsed section of code, if you undo immediately after the copy (without expanding the folded section) Visual Studio .NET may crash. To prevent the crash, wait for a moment before undoing, or expand the collapsed section. This is not an issue in Visual Studio .NET 2003.
• When using the Perl Dev Kit version 4, if the DebugBuild option is set to "True" on the Build Options page of the Project's Properties, you cannot use the Run without Debugging (Ctrl+F5) function. Set the DebugBuild option to "False" before running without debugging.
• When using the Perl Dev Kit version 4 to create a Managed Exe or Managed Dll (in conjunction with PerlNET), ensure that the RemotePort setting on the Debugging page of the Project's Properties is set to 2000 (the default is 3000). Also, the Perl Socket Service must be manually disabled. In the Windows Control Panel, select Administrative Tools|Services. In the right panel, select Perl Socket Service. Change the Startup type to Manual. Click the Stop button to stop the service. This issue has been fixed in version 5 of the Perl Dev Kit.
• When using the Perl Dev Kit version 4 to create a service or control, if the DebugBuild option is set to "True" on the Build Options page of the Project's Properties, the component will fail to register, and then fail to start debugging. This happens because the component tries to start debugging during the registration process. The work-around is to build once with DebugBuild set to "False", which will register the component, and then build again with DebugBuild set to "True". This issue has been fixed in version 5 of the Perl Dev Kit.
• The Rx Toolkit may terminate when using Unicode properties and character classes (like "\p{IsSylA}") in regular expressions.
• Options for building PerlTray applications are available regardless of whether you are running the Perl Dev Kit version 4 or 5. PerlTray support was introduced in version 5 of the Perl Dev Kit. The PerlTray options are not applicable if you are using Perl Dev Kit version 4.
• Multi-language debugging is an experimental feature, and does not work on all systems. Currently, it only supports Perl programs being called from another assembly, not Perl calling an assembly.
• The Visual Perl Tutorial relies on a Web service located at http://www.lemurlabs.com/projects/soap/fortune/. This site has recently become intermittent. The tutorial will be re-written in a future release.
• When you remove a project from a solution (by right-clicking the project name in the Solution Explorer), Visual Studio generates the error: "The parameter is incorrect." To remove a project from a solution, click on the project, then select Project|Unload Project from the drop-down menu. After the project is unloaded, you will be able to remove it from the solution.
• If the PDK (Perl Dev Kit) is installed after Visual Perl, you must manually update the install location in Visual Perl's Project Defaults.
• When building PerlNET components, the "Freestanding" box on the Build Options page of the project properties has no effect. You can work around this issue by specifying "-f" in the Additional Options field on the CommandLine page of the project properties.
• When building PerlNET components, if you upgrade the .NET Framework (or move the project to a machine with a different version of the Framework), you must delete any .NET References from the project properties, and then re-add them in their current location.
• References in PerlNET projects use absolute paths. Therefore, if you move a PerlNET project to a new directory, you must refresh the location of its References. Often, the location will be refreshed by altering and saving the project's properties within Visual Studio. Alternatively, edit the project's ".perlproj" file outside of Visual Studio, and change full paths to empty strings.
• Under certain configurations, remote debugging is slow. To enhance performance, ensure that no variable view windows (such as the Locals or Watch windows) are visible. Alternatively, if a variable view window is open, ensure that compound variables are not expanded. If an array with a large number of values is opened (by clicking on the plus symbol), Visual Studio won't proceed until it has determined all the values in the array.
• Visual Perl's source code control interface is SCC-compliant and supports Microsoft's SCC interfaces. It has been tested with Microsoft's Visual Source Safe version 6.0.
• Conditional breakpoints are not yet implemented.
• Watch points (breakpoints that are triggered when the value of a specified expression changes) are not yet implemented.
• If there are syntax errors in a program, Visual Perl displays a dialog stating that "Debugger unable to start due to syntax errors in your code."
• The Value field in the Locals and Watch windows displays newline sequences as square boxes. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as hovering over the Value field will display the value in a multiple-line box. You can also copy the value, paste it into a text editor, and not have to manually convert "\r\n" sequences to actual newlines.
• The call stack is incomplete: while the call-stack shows the full stack, giving the subroutine name, filename, and line number for each frame, it does not give argument information.
• You cannot remotely debug Perl programs on Windows 9x machines.
• If you accidentally associate a file extension used by another language with Visual Perl, the original binding will be lost, and will not be re-instated if you remove the association with Visual Perl. We intend to address this in a future version of Visual Perl.

Contact ActiveState

Visual Perl Announcements: to receive announcements via email regarding Visual Perl, subscribe to the Visual Perl Announcement list. See the Visual Perl Announcement Message Archive to view previous notices.

Visual Perl Discussions: to participate in email discussions regarding Visual Perl, subscribe to the Visual Perl Discussion list. See the Visual Perl Discussion Message Archive to view previous discussion threads.

Visual Perl Questions and Comments: send email to the Visual Perl Feedback mailing list.

Visual Perl Bugs: to view and report Visual Perl bugs, visit the Visual Perl bug database.

Copyright © 2000 ActiveState Corp. ActiveState is a division of Sophos Plc.. Portions Copyright © 1987-2003, Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. IntelliSense® is a Registered Trademark of Microsoft. Other companies and products mentioned in this document are the property of those companies.