I have used both. PerlApp used to require you develop your application on a Windows NT machine. Not sure if that is still true? I used it back in 1999. Perl2exe does not have that limitation. I am currently using Perl2exe on Windows 98. I use to compile Perl Win32::GUI applications with PerlApp and I would not have to distribute any other files other than the executable. However with Perl2exe, I have to distribute perlcrt.dll as well for additional runtime support. This is not that big a deal though. I just have enduser install that DLL file to the same directory as the executable. One thing I did not like about PerlApp is that it created subdirectories below /temp where it placed expanded files summing about 1megabyte each for each executable you ran. Perl2exe does not need to do this. Both PerlApp and Perl2exe allow you to compile with a special GUI switch so the DOS console is not visible. Executable file sizes are a little smaller with Perl2exe I found. Execution speed is similar for your compiled programs. But perhaps the biggest drawback to PerlApp was that you had to have either a user license or a machine license. Perl2exe does not limit you to compiling on one machine, or by one user. I use ActiveState Perl binary instead of Indigo Software Perl binary, but I use Indigo Software's Perl2exe compiler on ActiveState's perl binary. Works just fine. Indigo makes sure it works with ActiveState Perl.
I have successfully ran applications compiled under both compilers on Windows OS platforms as well as the Novell Network operating system. Eric Hansen Dallas, Texas U.S.A.
