I see that python is alive and well on the N800. That fact alone may make me go out an learn python, even.

But, in the mean time, and in order to support lots of other legacy code and options ... is anyone working on a perl install for the internet tablets? Along with hildon application bindings (the same way that python has them)?

It would be fine with me if it required being installed on a SD card. Perhaps some set of requirements like:

1) must have at least a 128MB card in the internal slot
2) must install everything under /media/mmc2/perl
3) the CPAN directory will be /media/mmc2/perl/.cpan
4) doesn't work with modules that require a C compiler (unless there's also a plan to include a gcc and gcc-libs package for direct installation on the tablets, which could also require being installed under /media/mmc2 with a lot of space; say 128MB for gcc/gcc-lib alone, 256MB for both gcc/gcc-lib and perl).

Perl works fine on the N800 without having to do anything special, just install it from the repositories.

I wasn't aware that it's on any of the repositories. It certainly doesn't show up in my application manager. Which repository is it in?

If you're using one of the latest firmwares, opening an xterm and doing a 'perl -v' should give you info on the installed Perl interpreter. Perl is required by some of the system utilities, so you probably won't see it in App Manager unless it's in Red Pill mode. But you shouldn't need to install the interpreter. it should already be there. Pure Perl modules should work, but you'll need to compile C-based modules for ARM.

Perl is not part of the latest firmware. (I have it on disk, unpacked from the last firmware image and re-packed into a tar file, so it's easy enough to check).

However, you can install it with apt-get in sudo gainroot mode (or possibly from application manager in red pill mode, but I prefer to stay away from the pill).

apt-get install perl-base
should do it. This is a stripped-down version. Its description refers to a more complete 'perl' package, but there's no package with that name available from the standard repos (perl-base comes from repository.maemo.org).

I'm totally with the original poster that hildon bindings etc. would be great. I program in a lot of languages but for some reason Python doesn't work well for me.