PerlExplorer

PerlExplorer is a little windows program to assist Perl developers. You can load perl modules and scripts in PerlExplorer. It will create a tree view with the module's documentation (in Pod format) and the modules functions, exported and local variables. Integration with UltraEdit-32 is provided. If you right-click on a module's function or member, you can open UltraEdit and jump to function's definition in the source file.

I started this little program before I heard of Johan Bahnhof's Oasis. But in the process I stumbled on his work, and copied some useful functions from the Oasis source code. You can get Oasis from http://www.bahnhof.se/~johanl/perl/Oasis. Oasis has nicer navigational features, cleaner source code and loads quicker. But with PerlExplorer you can load more than one module or script at a time, and the Perl 'parsing' relies less on programming conventions.

Editor support

UltraEdit-32 is supported, as in Oasis. I did a minor modification to allow project files to be recognized. The UltraEdit executable must be in your PATH environment variable.

I added support for VIM (a free editor called 'Vi improved' which runs in a console, see http://www.vim.org/) and GVIM (the GUI version). In order to jump from PerlExplorer to a specific location in a perl script, with VI or VIM, I scan the Windows desktop for any open VI windows. Then I check wether the script's name appears in the window's title. If so, I launch a 'vi --servername $VIMserver --remote +$linenumber $scriptname' command. As a consequence, the VI windows will not automatically take focus, and you must activate it manually!

To set your default editor, modify the ini file PerlExplore.ini:

	; The editor executable must be in the %PATH% variable.
	; Each editor is called with follwoing executable:
	; UltraEdit with uedit32
	; VIM with VIM
	; GVIM with GVIM
	;
	;
	[settings]
	;editor=UltraEdit
	;editor=VIM
	editor=GVIM

Download

Source code : pe-src.zip
You will also need the Win32::GUI module ("http://sourceforge.net/projects/perl-win32-gui") and the easy gui builder 'The Perl GUI Loft' ("http://www.bahnhof.se/~johanl/perl/Loft/")
Binary for Win32 : pe-win32.zip built with ActiveSate's PerlApp.

Screenshots