Strawberry Perl - Rationale

Rationale

Through the CPAN, Perl users can download any of a vast number of prepackaged modules. Many of these modules can be installed in any Perl environment; however, certain modules (XS modules) require a working C compiler and development environment to install successfully. Most Perl distributions assume that such an environment - which is usually provided with most Unix or Linux systems - already exists; however, Windows does not come with a C compiler and the required development environment, and these must be installed separately by the user or the administrator.

However, Strawberry Perl incorporates the MinGW development environment during installation. All the installed Perl tools are set up to use these built-in libraries and development tools to compile XS modules as required. This allows Strawberry Perl to use many XS modules without modification, directly from the CPAN.