[mangotext]

What further software would be required with Perl?

Where possible can someone please indicate costs?

What are the comparisons between PHP and Perl scripting languages?

[Chas]

What further software would be required with Perl?

Your question is a bit too vague. For all intents and purposes, all you need is Perl and a text editor. Are you asking about IDEs that cater to Perl?

Where possible can someone please indicate costs?

This one is easy: Free

What are the comparisons between PHP and Perl scripting languages?

You are really comparing apples and oranges here. If you’re referring to web apps - they are both very good in my opinion. When you get down to it, they're both going to get the job done and get it done well. It all boils down to what you are more comfortable coding with.

~Charlie

[brien]

to add onto what chas said a little bit:

What further software would be required with Perl?

Where possible can someone please indicate costs?

if you are using windows you will probably want ActivePerl [also free]

What are the comparisons between PHP and Perl scripting languages?

syntactically, they are almost the same. in otherwords, if you know php, you already know the syntax of perl.