ba6.us - Dave's Database Related Stuff

I've been using TextPad for writing Perl programs forever. TextPad is a pretty lightweight editor with a lot of decent features. Its nice because you can set up a PL document class with a syntax file to enable highlighting whenever you edit a *.pl file.

But today I'm working on a more complicated script with multiple functions. My main requirement is that there be an outline view so I can quickly jump between functions.

I found an Eclipse plug-in to help with editing Perl code. After using it for an hour I was very impressed. Reading over the feature list I've barely scratched the surface of what this Eclipse plugin can do.

• Syntax highlighting
• On the fly Syntax check
• Function lookup
• Outline View
• Source Formatter
• Perldoc
• Templating support
• Perl debugger - full featured graphical debugger - includes breakpoints / stepping / variable expression
• RegExp Plugin - lets you interactively build regular expressions and test them out!

Its easy to install if you already use Eclipse there are instructions on adding the plug in. If you don't use Eclipse yet they have a packaged download that has everything you need.

http://e-p-i-c.sourceforge.net/

-- Dave