Type in the example program using a text editor, and save it. Emacs is a good editor to use for this because it has its own Perl mode which formats lines nicely when you hit tab (use `M-x perl-mode'). But as ever, use whichever you're most comfortable with. After you've entered and saved the program make sure the file is executable by using the command chmod u+x progname at the UNIX prompt, where progname is the filename of the program. Now to run the program just type any of the following at the prompt. perl progname ./progname progname If something goes wrong then you may get error messages, or you may get nothing. You can always run the program with warnings using the command perl -w progname at the prompt. This will display warnings and other (hopefully) helpful messages before it tries to execute the program. To run the program with a debugger use the command perl -d progname When the file is executed Perl first compiles it and then executes that compiled version. So after a short pause for compilation the program should run quite quickly. This also explains why you can get compilation errors when you execute a Perl file which consists only of text. Make sure your program works before proceeding. The program's output may be slightly unexpected - at least it isn't very pretty. We'll look next at variables and then tie this in with prettier printing. _____________________________________________________________