ActiveState Releases Perl Dev Kit 6.0; Major Update to Industry-Standard Development Toolkit.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- In the paragraph following the "Availability" subhead, the last sentence should read: Launch special ends December 10, 2004 (sted Launch special ends December 10, 2005).

The corrected release reads:

ACTIVESTATE RELEASES PERL DEV KIT 6.0; MAJOR UPDATE TO INDUSTRY-STANDARD DEVELOPMENT TOOLKIT

ActiveState, the leading provider of development tools and services for dynamic languages such as Perl, PHP, Python, Tcl and XSLT, today announced the release of Perl Dev Kit 6.0, the newest version of its industry-standard toolkit for easily creating, building and deploying applications with Perl, the powerful and popular open source language.

Perl Dev Kit 6.0 introduces graphical user interfaces for most tools, providing visual guides to a wealth of build options. New bundles, PDK Deployment Tools and PDK Productivity Tools, offer flexible licensing, enabling users to cost-effectively meet their individual needs.

PDK Deployment Tools make it easy to deliver software to a broad range of users and platforms, with new graphical user interfaces for all application builders to simplify the creation of Perl executables.

Technical enhancements include shared library options and a dynamic DLL loader. The deployment tools also feature PerlMSI, for creating Microsoft MSI installation files.

PDK Productivity Tools simplify the creation of useful, high-quality applications. New visual tools include VBScript Converter, VBScript Converter, which gives the Perl programmer access to the vast VBScript samples available, with an easy to use automatic translation tool. PDK Productivity Tools also feature a graphical debugger for painless, simple debugging of Perl scripts, and a Visual Package Manager for administering Perl installations locally or remotely.

"Perl Dev Kit 6.0 is an exciting release; there's something for everyone," said Matt Herdon, director, product management, ActiveState.

"We've added cool new tools, GUIs and technical improvements, and the new packaging actually lowers the price for people just looking for, say, the PerlApp executable builder, while still providing great value in the complete bundle, PDK Pro Pack."

"ActiveState's PDK has allowed us to release Windows services in a way we never could before, without releasing the source and complicating installations but retaining all benefits of Perl," said Phillip Beazley, president, adminware, inc. "PDK6, with its new tools and GUI, makes packaging and deployment even easier. It is simply wonderful and should not be overlooked."

Perl Dev Kit 6.0 includes the following new and improved features:

-- Graphical user interfaces for most tools

Make creating executables fast and easy, with visual guides to a wealth of build options.

-- PDK Filter Builder

The PDK Filter Builder is an intuitive tool for interactively creating text processors that do custom filtering and replacement operations. It can be used as a pure visual tool by simply outputting modified text, or to generate Perl code that performs the filtering, for adding to a toolkit or embedding into applications. Filter Builder displays the filtered results on-the-fly, allowing rapid iterations and useful what-if interactions.

-- VBScript Converter

VBScript Converter is a powerful tool for generating Perl code from VBScript. Capable of recognizing all popular VBScript type libraries, including Microsoft Excel, Windows Scripting Host, Lotus Notes and more, the converter allows developers to leverage the huge VBScript libraries available on MSDN, other web sites, or in-house, by converting them to Perl code for integration into larger applications. Alternatively, users can record VBA macros with the Microsoft Office macro recorder, then translate them to Perl for ultimate hackability.

-- Dynamic DLL loader

The Dynamic DLL Loader eliminates the need to write temporary files to the hard disk during execution of most applications, saving disk space, reducing clean-up of temporary files and increasing security.

Availability

PDK 6.0 is available in three editions. PDK Productivity Tools and PDK Deployment Tools are targeted bundles, available for special release pricing of $129.95 (regular price: $145). PDK Pro Pack combines PDK Productivity and Deployment Tools in a single, high-value bundle, with special release pricing of $199.95 (regular price: $245). Promotional upgrade pricing and education licenses are also available. Launch special ends December 10, 2004.

All versions are available now at http://www.ActiveState.com/PDK.

About ActiveState

ActiveState is the leading provider of tools for dynamic languages such as Perl, PHP, Python, Tcl and XSLT. Over two million developers rely on ActiveState's professional development tools, high-quality language distributions and enterprise services. www.ActiveState.com

(C) 2004 ActiveState, a division of Sophos

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.