Going from ASP and ASP.NET to Perl

[j_macaroni]

The main reason is so that I develop web apps to be compatible on both
Windows and Linux. I looked at the other langs (PHP, Python, Java) but
Perl seems to have the best balance of scripting, libraries. The
language is scary that it allows you to do so many things.

These are development tools all under Windows for now:

1) Komodo using ActivePerl
2) MySQL
3) Apache for Windows

Some questions:

Can anyone recd a good report designer that will create reports to run
under Windows and Linux? Under Windows I like http://DataDynamics.com
ActiveReports report writer but I would prefer to use a report designer
that will create code to run under both Linux and Windows.

With ASP you can set up session and application variables and remain
persistent across page requests. How do you do this with Perl/CGI?

Can I run Apache concurrently with IIS? If I setup
localhost/myapps/index.html how do I make ot so Apache processes the
page instead of IIS?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Matt Garrish]

The main reason is so that I develop web apps to be compatible on both
Windows and Linux. I looked at the other langs (PHP, Python, Java) but
Perl seems to have the best balance of scripting, libraries. The
language is scary that it allows you to do so many things.

These are development tools all under Windows for now:

1) Komodo using ActivePerl
2) MySQL
3) Apache for Windows

Some questions:

Can anyone recd a good report designer that will create reports to run
under Windows and Linux? Under Windows I like http://DataDynamics.com
ActiveReports report writer but I would prefer to use a report designer
that will create code to run under both Linux and Windows.

With ASP you can set up session and application variables and remain
persistent across page requests. How do you do this with Perl/CGI?

Take a look at the Apache::ASP module. You can keep within the ASP world
while still writing code that can be run on any server Apache can run on.

Can I run Apache concurrently with IIS? If I setup
localhost/myapps/index.html how do I make ot so Apache processes the
page instead of IIS?

If you have separate IPs for each server, yes. If not, then no. They can't
both be listening on port 80.

Matt

 

[Brian Wakem]

If you have separate IPs for each server, yes. If not, then no. They can't
both be listening on port 80.

Of course they don't have to listen on the same port....

 

[Matt Garrish]

Of course they don't have to listen on the same port....

Ahh, missed the localhost part of his question. I thought he was asking if
this could be done for production. I'd still prefer two IPs to appending the
port for development, though... : )

Matt

 

[jdrago_999]

I agree - I have been using Apache::ASP for a couple years now and have
to say it is pretty good.

The Microsoft guys at work can get up to speed quickly too, since the
<% %> syntax is the same.

Apache::ASP has several major benefits over normal IIS/ASP though,
including:

* Perl
* Apache
* sub Script_On(Start|End|Parse|Flush) in the global.asa
* $Request->Upload( 'fieldname' )
* $Request->Include( ... )
* $Request->TrapInclude( ... )
* $Server->Mail( ... )
* $Server->RegisterCleanup( sub { ... } )
* XML-style tag libraries

It is possible (though undocumented at this point in time) to use
Apache::ASP with database-persisted Sessions (via Apache::Session).

Apache::ASP can be configured to automatically email you error reports,
so you know when server errors happen, even if you're not watching the
log files.

The Apache::ASP mailing list ( check out
http://www.apache-asp.org/support.html ) is active and has several
regulars there to answer your questions.

Apache::ASP installs right out of the box via the CPAN module on Win32
and on Linux.

Regards,
John Drago