Perl is a interpreted programming language that was developed by Larry Hall in 1987. It has gone a number of changes and upgrades since then. Perl was originally designed to be a text interpreter but slowly many more features were added to it. It uses largely the same syntax as the C programming language.
For the Linux users, Perl is already known and easily available. But Windows users have to use a third-party software to install Perl on their Windows computers. We can use a bundle called Strawberry Perl which is designed to work on Windows. This bundle installs Perl and GCC compiler on your Windows PC. The bundle also consists of some of the popular libraries and database management tools.
Installing Perl through Strawberry Perl is extremely easy. All you have to do is visit Strawberry Perl homepage at https://strawberryperl.com/ and download the package meant for your Windows PC. There are different installers MSI packages available for 32-bit an 64-bit editions of Windows. You can also download archived ZIP, and portable versions of the packages. But MSI packages are the recommended and easier way to install Perl on Windows.
After you have installed Strawberry Perl on your Windows computer, you can launch its console from the Start Menu. You can check the version of Perl installed on your PC by giving the command perl –version. All the Perl script files (with .pl extension) are also associated with Perl so you can just double-click on them to execute them.
In addition to Perl, it also installs some useful things which might be needed when using Perl. This includes GNU C/C++ Compiler. You can also check the version of the GCC installed by giving the command gcc –version. This is automatically added to the PATH variable and we can use it from anywhere.
You can download Strawberry Perl from https://strawberryperl.com/releases.html.