avoid creating new files during make install
[p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git] / README.epoc
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4d2c4e07 1=================================================
2Perl 5 README file for the EPOC operating system.
3==================================================
4
832c1cda 5Olaf Flebbe <o.flebbe@gmx.de>
14bdf8d3 6http://www.linuxstart.com/~oflebbe/perl/perl.html
71999-11-01
4d2c4e07 8
9Introduction
10------------
11
14bdf8d3 12This is a port of Perl version 5.005_62 to EPOC.
4d2c4e07 13
ae2d1787 14There are many features left out, because of restrictions of the POSIX
4d2c4e07 15support in the SDK.
16
4d2c4e07 17
ae2d1787 18Installation/Usage
19------------------
4d2c4e07 20
ae2d1787 21You will need ~4MB free space in order to run perl.
22
23Install perl.sis on the EPOC machine (most likely a PSION Series
245). If you do not know how to do that, you are on your own. You may
25have to use a CF Card in order to work with perl. The perl debugger
26uses more then 1.5 MB additional RAM. The heap is limited to 2 MB.
27
28Perl itself and its standard library are using 1.7MB disk space. I
29left out UTF support and modules which will not work with this
30version. (For details look into epoc/createpkg.pl).
31
32Copy eshell.exe to the same location as perl. Start eshell.exe with a
33double click.
34
35Now you can enter: perl -de 0 in order to run the perl debugger. If
36you are leaving perl, you have to switch back manually to eshell.exe
37(With Ctrl-System or the button in the upper right corner of the
38System screen.) When perl is running, you will see a task with the
39name STDOUT in the task list.
40
41You can redirect the output with the UNIX bourne shell syntax (this is
42built into perl rather then eshell) For instance the following command
43line will run the script test.pl with the output redirected to
44stdout_file, the errors to stderr_file and input from stdin_file.
45
46perl test.pl >stdout_file <stdin_file 2>stderr_file
47
48Alternativly you can use 2>&1 in order to add the standard error output to
49stdout.
50
51Pathnames to executables in eshell.exe have to be written with
52backslashes, file arguments to perl with slashes. The default drive of
53perl is the same as the drive perl.exe is located on, the default path
54is the path perl.exe is / (???).
55
56i.e. command lines look a little bit funny:
57
58D:\perl.exe C:/test.pl >C:/output.txt
4d2c4e07 59
ae2d1787 60In order to use Getopt::Long you have to autosplit this module by hand: run
4d2c4e07 61
ae2d1787 62\perl.exe \autosplit.pl in order to create the necessary files.
4d2c4e07 63
ae2d1787 64You may have a problem to create perl scripts. A cumbersome workaround
65is to use the OPL Editor and exporting to text.
4d2c4e07 66
ae2d1787 67Problems
68--------
4d2c4e07 69
ae2d1787 70The following known problems exist:
4d2c4e07 71
ae2d1787 721) no support for system, backquoting, pipes etc. One cannot exec a
73 different process.
74
752) no signals, kill, alarm. Do not try to use them. This may be
76 impossible to implement on EPOC.
77
783) select is missing.
79
804) binmode does not exist. (No CR LF to LF translation for text files)
81
825) Only a stub Config.pm
83
846) EPOC does not handle the notion of current drive and current
85 directory very well (i.e. not at all, but it tries hard to emulate
86 one)
4d2c4e07 87
ae2d1787 887) sockets may hardly of any use.
4d2c4e07 89
ae2d1787 908) You need the shell eshell.exe in order to run perl.exe and supply
91 it with arguments.
4d2c4e07 92
93
94Compiling Perl 5 on the EPOC cross compiling envionment.
95--------------------------------------------------------
96
970. You will need the C++ SDK from
ae2d1787 98 http://developer.epocworld.com/. Install it on a separate
99 drive.
4d2c4e07 100
ae2d1787 1011. Get the Perl sources from your nearest CPAN site.
102 Unpack the sources of perl5.005_60 in the epoc development drive.
103
1042. Copy all files in the directory perl5.005_60/epoc to perl5.005_60.
4d2c4e07 105
1063. Check the perl.mmp file: It should have the correct locations for
107 project und subproject (see step 1)
108
1094. Change to the EPOC development drive and run
110 makmake perl marm
111 nmake -f perl.marm
112 makesis perl.pkg perl5.005.sis
113
1145. Beam the perl5.005.sis to the Psion5, install and enjoy!
115
ae2d1787 116You can use epoc\createpkg.pl to generate a new perl.pkg file.
117
118
119Wish List
4d2c4e07 120---------
121
ae2d1787 122- Implement an OPX to get rid of eshell.exe.
4d2c4e07 123
ae2d1787 124- Implement system(), in order to run the tests.
4d2c4e07 125
126- Implement getprotcolbyname() and relatives.
127
4d2c4e07 128Support Status
129--------------
130
131I'm offering this port "as is". You can ask me questions, but I can't
132guarantee I'll be able to answer them; I don't know much about Perl
ae2d1787 133internals myself;