Visual Perl for Microsoft Visual Studio .NET - Part 3
February 11, 2002
The Debugger
I was delightfully surprised to see that the debugger in Visual Studio works
for Perl. You can step through scripts line-by-line, set
breakpoints, and watch the values of local variables as they change
(Screen
Shot). Perl does have a command-line debugger, but few people know
how to use it and even fewer actually do. The graphical debugger in Visual
Perl is a nice touch and will ensure that more programmers will be using Perl
debugging features to
track down bugs.
HTML Editing
If you're like me, most applications you develop these days are Web based. I
would typically end up using Macromedia Dreamweaver to layout the interface and
Homesite to tweak the HTML. Visual Studio has great built-in HTML editing
capabilities, which means you rarely have to leave the tool at all.
There is a design and source view, similar to Dreamweaver, and a pallet of HTML
widgets that can be dragged into the design view and moved around. In fact, if
you look at the files that are loaded into the project in the window below,
you'll see that I'm editing a Perl script, two Perl modules, an HTML file, and
two XML files. Yup, it can handle XML too.
Class Browser
The class browser lists all of the classes and subroutines contained in the
modules and scripts for a given project. You can browse this list and double
click on a method or function, which will load the file and place the pointer
over the line where the subroutine begins.
This is a great help for finding a
subroutine when you don't remember which file it's in, or maybe even what it's
named.
Conclusion
Visual Perl is a must have for any serious Perl developer and a great
enhancement to the most comprehensive interactive development environment ever
created. My hat's off to the ActiveState team. Still, Visual Studio is
overkill if you're just writing small to medium sized
stand-alone Perl scripts. However, if you frequently work on programs with many
lines of code that contain functions and/or modules scattered across multiple
files, Visual Studio provides the tools and features that will make programs
easier to navigate and will help make you a more efficient programmer.
Additional Resources:
Visual Perl for Microsoft Visual Studio .NET - Part 2
Visual Perl for Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
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