ActiveState, the dynamic languages company, today announced the
release of Perl Dev Kit 8.0. Perl Dev Kit (PDK) provides essential
tools for Perl programmers, making it simple to build and deploy
applications.

PDK 8.0 now features cross-platform wrapping in PerlApp, allowing
ease of deployment to any platform regardless of development
platform. PerlApp is the industry-standard tool for creating and
deploying Perl executables to all major platforms, and is one of the
powerful tools included in PDK.

The release of PDK 8.0 also introduces to the newest feature for team
development: PerlCritic. PerlCritic allows developers to run coding
policies against source code to ensure their work conforms to either
industry standards or user-based personalized standards. Designed
specifically for small development teams, PDK 8.0 includes both
predefined and configurable policies.

The newest PDK includes the complete suite of tools for creating and
deploying Perl applications. PDK 8.0's comprehensive feature set
includes tools to build code filters, convert VBScript programs or
snippets to Perl, analyze code coverage and hotspots, make .NET
applications with Perl, create ActiveX controls, convert Perl
programs into Windows services, create MSI Windows installers for
Perl applications, and more, plus a graphical debugger.

Jan Dubois, Senior Perl Developer at ActiveState, says,
"Cross-platform wrapping is undoubtedly our most requested feature,
and PDK 8.0 is the only Perl tool that offers it."

Jeff Hobbs, Languages Director at ActiveState added, "Developers will
really like PerlCritic because it allows teams to focus on their work
and ensures everyone on a team is coding to the same standards. It's
really simple to run PerlCritic against source code, and we find it
an invaluable tool for our team."

ActiveState also distributes ActivePerl, the industry-standard Perl
distribution, available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, and
AIX. Millions of developers worldwide rely on ActivePerl's
completeness and ease-of-use, while ActiveState's Enterprise
Distributions offer support and maintenance packages for companies
that rely on Perl, and ActivePerl OEM Licensing provides companies
that rely on Perl with redistribution rights, plus optional support
and co-marketing packages.

For more information on ActiveState's Perl Dev Kit 8.0 (PDK), visit
http://www.activestate.com/perl_dev_kit/

The release of PDK 8.0 includes the complete suite of PDK tools for
creating and deploying Perl applications to any platform. Graphical
user interfaces for all application builders provide visual guides to
a wealth of build options for fast and easy executable creation, and
source conformity tools. The PDK Deployment Tools package will no
longer be offered with this release.

PDK 8.0 is available for single users for $295 US and for teams in
5-packs for $1180 US. Special release pricing is in effect until
March 31, 2009, with single user licenses offered at $245 US ($50
savings) and 5-pack licensing for only $995 US ($185 savings).

Upgrades from PDK 7.x (including PDK Deployment Tools 7.x) are $95 US
until until March 31, 2009 (after which upgrades are $145 US).

PDK users can also upgrade to ActivePerl Pro Studio, which includes
the new PDK 8.0, the recently released Komodo IDE 5.0, and a Safari
Books Online subscription. ActivePerl Pro Studio is available by
annual subscription.