I just started learning perl using emacs on linux 8.0
I thought everything was going great...Then I tried to create a basic program for user input. The line that I tried was;
$input=<STDIN>
print "you entered" $input;
What I get is;
you entered
Why doesn't emacs recognize <STDIN>
I've tried different combos and for some reason it just won't prompt me for input. Whats the deal?

"linux 8.0"

There is no such thing. I presume you are referring to the Distribution which you are using, presumably Redhat 8.

Emacs is a text editor, and AFAIK does not have a perl interpreter in it (although it seems to have everything else, so I could be wrong). What you need to do is either: a) Save it as a .pl file and run "perl thefile.pl" or b) At the beginning of the file put "#!/usr/bin/perl" (I think that's where it lives), and then set it to executable using the command "chmod +x thefile.pl".

Yes... Sorry about the redhat thing
Here's my code;
>#!/usr/bin/perl
>print "Enter the Data: ";
>$data = <STDIN>
>print "You entered $data !!";
I made the file executable by entering;
>chmod +x data.pl
at the shell prompt, and then executed by entering
>./data.pl
and
>perl data.pl
The response is;
<Enter the Data: You entered !!
It doesn't prompt me for input.
Do I need to include some kind of library or initiate a mode or (i hope) is it just syntax?

Try a semicolon after <STDIN>... and you should chomp($data) to get rid of the line feed.

I made the changes and there is no difference.
I also changed the mode from <Fundamental> to <Perl>
I also added -w to the end of #!/usr/bin/perl
I get the warning
"use of uninitialized value"
I just can't get it to prompt me for input

It works for me. There's no reason why it shouldn't work. What's this "mode" you're referring to?

I think I may just have a crappy version of emacs.I'm using emacs on REDHAT linux 8.0 and right above the minibuffer is a line with a bunch of info like what line you're on and so on. One of these peices of information is what mode it's operating in. When I start the program it seems to use as a default <Fundamental> you can change this (as I have done with no positive outcome concerning my problem) to a bunch of different things. Apparently there are two perl modes. I changed it by entering| M-x perl-mode |but you could enter cperl-mode. I've entered every program in the book I bought (learnin perl oreilly) that contains <STDIN> and none of them work. Maybe I just need a fresh version of emacs

sorry... here i am, the ignorant n00b, but what the hell are you referring to with "emacs"? being a mac-user, im inclined to think its the newer version of the iMac, but there you go.

li'l help?

It's a text editor. I'm fairly certain it was created for use with unix/linux systems but I think you can get it on windows now too. It would be sweet if you could use emacs on iMacs just because of the confusion factor!

Emacs predates UNIX...(TECO...)

Anyway, don't run your perl programs in emacs. Just open a shell and run them from there.

oh.. kool, thanks :)

"Emacs predates UNIX..."

Emacs was written on a commercial UNIX platform (System V?).

No, Emacs was written as a set of macros for TECO on some old timesharing system originally. Eventually it was ported to POSIX systems when RMS started GNU.

Emacs is the devil.