Win32::GUI for College Course?

[Mike]

I'm teaching an Adv. Programming class at the local community college,
and the first part of the semester is in Perl. We had originally
decided to teach PHP for the last half, but now I'm debating on
whether this should be switched to teaching the Win32::GUI instead.
However, this is a new module for me, so I'm a little hesitant.

Before I decide, I'm hoping to get some feedback from people that are
already using it:

1. With a good Perl background, am I going to be able to teach myself
enough about this module inside of 2 weeks for 8 weeks of class?

2. Does this do what I think it does? In reading the manual, it seems
as if it will "compile" a Perl program into a type of executable
(.plx). Does the end user have to have Perl installed on their
computer?

3. At the school, our servers are running Unix, and this is what we
host our scripts on. However, we use WinXP as our machines, and we
Putty into the server to code. In this instance, will we run the .plx
from the Unix server, or from the Windows terminal?

4. Finally, what is the scope of this module? Is it used widely enough
to make it worth teaching, or should I stick with PHP?

FYI, the students have already had COBOL, Java, C++, .NET (blah), and
Perl.

TIA,

Mike

 

[Paul Lalli]

I'm teaching an Adv. Programming class at the local community college,
and the first part of the semester is in Perl. We had originally
decided to teach PHP for the last half, but now I'm debating on
whether this should be switched to teaching the Win32::GUI instead.
However, this is a new module for me, so I'm a little hesitant.

Before I decide, I'm hoping to get some feedback from people that are
already using it:

1. With a good Perl background, am I going to be able to teach myself
enough about this module inside of 2 weeks for 8 weeks of class?

That depends entirely on you. How well are you able to learn new
material? I don't think Win32::GUI is any more difficult than learning
any other new programming aspect.

2. Does this do what I think it does? In reading the manual, it seems
as if it will "compile" a Perl program into a type of executable
(.plx). Does the end user have to have Perl installed on their
computer?

No, it does not 'compile' anything. A perl program is a script,
regardless of what modules it uses. The .plx is just the extention the
author of whatever examples you've read has chosen to use for his/her
scripts. Yes, the end user will still need to have Perl installed.

(Note that there are other solutions available. There is a shareware
perl2exe program, for example. But that's unrelated to your question.)

3. At the school, our servers are running Unix, and this is what we
host our scripts on. However, we use WinXP as our machines, and we
Putty into the server to code. In this instance, will we run the .plx
from the Unix server, or from the Windows terminal?

From Windows. Win32::[anything] isn't going to run on any non-Windows
platform. You will want to have a windows distribution of Perl
(likely either ActiveState or CygWin) installed on the Windows machines.

4. Finally, what is the scope of this module? Is it used widely enough
to make it worth teaching, or should I stick with PHP?

That question is non-sensical. Perl with Win32::GUI is used to create
applications to be run on a Windows machine. PHP is (generally) used to
create websites and web-based applications. What you teach depends on
what kinds of applications you're wanting your students to create.

Paul Lalli

 

[Paul Lalli]

3. At the school, our servers are running Unix, and this is what we
host our scripts on. However, we use WinXP as our machines, and we
Putty into the server to code. In this instance, will we run the .plx
from the Unix server, or from the Windows terminal?

From Windows. Win32::[anything] isn't going to run on any non-Windows
platform. You will want to have a windows distribution of Perl
(likely either ActiveState or CygWin) installed on the Windows machines.

4. Finally, what is the scope of this module? Is it used widely enough
to make it worth teaching, or should I stick with PHP?

That question is non-sensical. Perl with Win32::GUI is used to create
applications to be run on a Windows machine. PHP is (generally) used to
create websites and web-based applications. What you teach depends on
what kinds of applications you're wanting your students to create.

Paul Lalli

I probably should also have mentioned that if you want to teach Graphical
User Interfaces using Perl, and you want to not be confined to Windows (as
Question 3 implies), you might want to check out Perl/Tk instead of Perl
with Win32::GUI. http://www.perltk.org/

 

[Bart Lateur]

1. With a good Perl background, am I going to be able to teach myself
enough about this module inside of 2 weeks for 8 weeks of class?

At least have a look at The GUI Loft,

<http://www.bahnhof.se/~johanl/perl/Loft/>

That'll quickly give you a good idea of what you can do with Win32::GUI
(it's RAD like VB but in Perl) and it's IMHO more fun.