1 If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you see.
2 It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is specially
3 designed to be readable as is.
7 README.symbian - Perl version 5 on Symbian OS
11 This document describes various features of the Symbian operating
12 system that will affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just Perl)
13 is compiled and/or runs.
15 B<NOTE: this port (as of 0.2.0) does not compile into a Symbian
16 OS GUI application, but instead it results in a Symbian DLL.>
17 The DLL includes a C++ class called CPerlBase, which one can then
18 (derive from and) use to embed Perl into applications, see F<symbian/README>.
20 The base port of Perl to Symbian only implements the basic POSIX-like
21 functionality; it does not implement any further Symbian or Series 60
24 It is also possible to generate Symbian executables for "miniperl"
25 and "perl", but since there is no standard command line interface
26 for Symbian (nor full keyboards in the devices), these are useful
27 mainly as demonstrations.
29 =head2 Compiling Perl on Symbian
31 (0) You need to have the Symbian SDK installed.
33 These instructions have been tested under various Nokia Series 60
34 Symbian SDKs (1.2 to 2.6, 2.8 should also work, 1.2 compiles but
35 does not work). You can get the SDKs from
36 Forum Nokia (http://www.forum.nokia.com/).
38 A prerequisite for any of the SDKs is to install ActivePerl
39 from ActiveState, http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/
41 Having the SDK installed also means that you need to have either
42 the Metrowerks CodeWarrior installed (2.8 and 3.0 were used in testing)
43 or the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 installed (SP3 minimum, SP5 recommended).
45 Note that for example the Serie s60 2.0 VC SDK installation talks
46 about ActivePerl build 518, which does no more (as of mid-2005) exist
47 at the ActiveState website. The ActivePerl 5.8.4 build 810 was
48 used successfully for compiling Perl on Symbian. The 5.6.x ActivePerls
51 Other SDKs or compilers like Visual.NET, command-line-only
52 Visual.NET, Borland, GnuPoc, or sdk2unix have not been tried.
54 These instructions almost certainly won't work with older Symbian
55 releases or other SDKs. Patches to get this port running in other
56 releases, SDKs, compilers, platforms, or devices are naturally welcome.
58 (1) Get a Perl source code distribution (for example the file
59 perl-5.9.2.tar.gz is fine) from http://www.cpan.org/src/
60 and unpack it in your the C:/Symbian directory of your Windows
63 (2) Change to the perl source directory.
65 cd c:\Symbian\perl-5.x.x
67 (3) Run the following script using the perl coming with the SDK
69 perl symbian\config.pl
71 You must use the cmd.exe, the Cygwin shell will not work
72 (the PATH must include the SDK tools, including a Perl,
73 which should be the case under cmd.exe)
75 (4) Build the project, either by
79 in cmd.exe or by using either the Metrowerks CodeWarrior
80 or the Visual C++ 6.0.
82 If you use the VC IDE, you will have to run F<symbian\config.pl>
83 first using the cmd.exe, and then run 'make win.mf vc6.mf' to generate
84 the VC6 makefiles and workspaces.
86 The following Series 60 SDK and compiler configurations and Nokia
87 phones that were tested (+ = compiled and PerlApp run, - = not),
88 both for Perl 5.8.x and 5.9.x:
92 1.2 | + | + | 3650 (*)
97 Also 2.8 should work fine.
99 If you are using the 'make' directly, it is the GNU make from the SDKs,
100 and it will invoke the right make commands for the Windows emulator
101 build and the Arm target builds ('thumb' by default) as necessary.
102 (*) Compiles but does not work, unfortunately.
104 The build scripts assume the 'absolute style' SDK installs under C:,
105 the 'subst style' will not work.
107 If using the VC IDE, to build use for example the File->Open Workspace->
108 C:\Symbian\8.as\S60_2nd_FP2\epoc32\build\symbian\perl\perl\wins\perl.dsw
109 The emulator binaries will appear in the same directory.
111 If using the VC IDE, you will a lot of warnings in the beginning of
112 the build because a lot of headers mentioned by the source cannot
113 be found, but this is not serious since those headers are not used.
115 The Metrowerks will give a lot of warnings about unused variables and
116 empty declarations, you can ignore those.
118 When the Windows and Arm DLLs are built do not be scared by a very long
119 messages whizzing by: it is the "export freeze" phase where the whole
120 (rather large) API of Perl is listed.
122 Once the build is completed you need to create the DLL SIS file by
126 which will create the file perlXYZ.sis (the XYZ being the Perl version)
127 which you can then install into your Symbian device: an easy way
128 to do this is to send them via Bluetooth or infrared and just open
131 Since the total size of all Perl SIS files once installed is
132 over 1.9 MB, it is recommended to do the installation into a
133 memory card (drive E:) instead of the C: drive.
135 The size of the perlXYZ.SIS is about 370 kB but once it is in the
136 device it is about one 750 kB (according to the application manager).
138 The perlXYZ.sis includes only the Perl DLL: to create an additional
139 SIS file which includes some of the standard (pure) Perl libraries,
144 Some of the standard Perl libraries are included, but not all:
145 see L</HISTORY> or F<symbian\install.cfg> for more details
148 Some of the standard Perl XS extensions (see L</HISTORY> are
153 which will create perlXYZext.sis (210 kB -> 470 kB).
155 To compile the demonstration application PerlApp you need first to
156 install the Perl headers under the SDK.
158 To install the Perl headers and the class CPerlBase documentation
159 so that you no more need the Perl sources around to compile Perl
160 applications using the SDK:
164 The destination directory is C:\Symbian\perl\X.Y.Z. For more
165 details, see F<symbian\PerlBase.pod>.
167 Once the headers have been installed, you can create a SIS for
172 The perlapp.sis (11 kB -> 16 kB) will be built in the symbian
173 subdirectory, but a copy will also be made to the main directory.
175 If you want to package the Perl DLLs (one for WINS, one for ARMI),
176 the headers, and the documentation:
180 which will create perlXYZsdk.zip that can be used in another
181 Windows system with the SDK, without having to compile Perl in
184 If you want to package the PerlApp sources:
188 If you want to package the perl.exe and miniperl.exe, you
189 can use the perlexe.sis and miniperlexe.sis make targets.
190 You also probably want the perllib.sis for the libraries
191 and maybe even the perlapp.sis for the recognizer.
193 The make target 'allsis' combines all the above SIS targets.
195 To clean up after compilation you can use either of
200 depending on how clean you want to be.
202 =head2 Compilation problems
204 If you see right after "make" this
206 cat makefile.sh >makefile
207 'cat' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
208 operable program or batch file.
210 it means you need to (re)run the symbian\config.pl.
214 'perl' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
215 operable program or batch file.
217 you may need to reinstall the ActivePerl.
221 ren makedef.pl nomakedef.pl
222 The system cannot find the file specified.
223 C:\Symbian\...\make.exe: [rename_makedef] Error 1 (ignored)
225 please ignore it since it is nothing serious (the build process of
226 renames the Perl makedef.pl as nomakedef.pl to avoid confusing it
227 with a makedef.pl of the SDK).
231 The PerlApp application demonstrates how to embed Perl interpreters
232 to a Symbian application. The "Time" menu item runs the following
233 Perl code: C<print "Running in ", $^O, "\n", scalar localtime>,
234 the "Oneliner" allows one to type in Perl code, and the "Run"
235 opens a file chooser for selecting a Perl file to run.
237 The PerlApp also is started when the "Perl recognizer" (also included
238 and installed) detects a Perl file being activated througg the GUI,
239 and offers either to install it under \Perl (if the Perl file is in
240 the inbox of the messaging application) or to run it (if the Perl file
245 In the symbian subdirectory there is sisify.pl utility which can be
246 used to package Perl scripts and/or Perl library directories into SIS
247 files, which can be installed to the device. To run the sisify.pl
248 utility, you will need to have the 'makesis' and 'uidcrc' utilities
249 already installed. If you don't have the S60 Win32 SDKs, you may try
250 for example http://gnupoc.sourceforge.net/ or http://symbianos.org/~andreh/.
252 =head2 Using Perl in Symbian
254 First of all note that you have full access to the Symbian device
255 when using Perl: you can do a lot of damage to your device (like
256 removing system files) unless you are careful. Please do take
257 backups before doing anything.
259 The Perl port has been done for the most part using the Symbian
260 standard POSIX-ish STDLIB library. It is a reasonably complete
261 library, but certain corners of such emulation libraries that tend
262 to be left unimplemented on non-UNIX platforms have been left
263 unimplemented also this time: fork(), signals(), user/group ids,
264 select() working for sockets, non-blocking sockets, and so forth.
265 See the file symbian/config.sh and look for 'undef' to find the
266 unsupported APIs (or from Perl use Config).
268 The filesystem of Symbian devices uses DOSish syntax, "drives"
269 separated from paths by a colon, and backslashes for the path.
270 The exact assignment of the drives probably varies between platforms,
271 but you might for example see C: as the flash main memory, D: as the
272 RAM drive, E: as the memory card (MMC), Z: as the ROM. As far the
273 devices go the NUL: is the bit bucket, the COMx: are the serial lines,
274 IRCOMx: are the IR ports, TMP: might be C:\System\Temp. Remember to
275 double those backslashes in doublequoted strings.
277 The Perl DLL is installed in \System\Libs\. The Perl libraries and
278 extension DLLs are installed in \System\Libs\Perl\X.Y.Z\. The PerlApp
279 is installed in \System\Apps\, and the SIS also installs a couple of
280 demo scripts in \Perl\.
282 Note that the Symbian filesystem is very picky: it strongly prefers
283 the \ instead of the /.
285 When doing XS / Symbian C++ programming include first the Symbian
286 headers, then any standard C/POSIX headers, then Perl headers, and finally
287 any application headers.
289 New() and Copy() are unfortunately used by both Symbian and Perl code
290 so you'll have to play cpp games if you need them. PerlBase.h undefines
291 the Perl definitions and redefines them as PerlNew() and PerlCopy().
295 Lots. See F<symbian\TODO>.
299 As of Perl Symbian port version 0.2.0 any part of Perl's standard
300 regression test suite has not been run on a real Symbian device using
301 the ported Perl, so innumerable bugs may lie in wait. Therefore there
302 is absolutely no warranty.
306 When creating and extending application programming interfaces (APIs)
307 for Symbian or Series 60 it is suggested that trademarks, registered
308 trademarks, or trade names are not used in the API names. Instead,
309 developers should consider basing the API naming in the existing (C++)
310 public component and API naming, modified as appropriate by the rules
311 of the programming language the new APIs are for.
313 Nokia is a registered trademark of Nokia Corporation. Nokia's product
314 names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nokia. Other product
315 and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks or trade names of
316 their respective owners.
324 Copyright (c) 2004-2005 Nokia. All rights reserved.
328 The Symbian port is licensed under the same terms as Perl itself.
338 (This will show as "0.01" in the Symbian Installer.)
340 - The console window is a very simple console indeed: one can
341 get the newline with "000" and the "C" button is a backspace.
342 Do not expect a terminal capable of vt100 or ANSI sequences.
343 The console is also "ASCII", you cannot input e.g. any accented
344 letters. Because of obvious physical constraints the console is
345 also very small: (in Nokia 6600) 22 columns, 17 rows.
346 - The following libraries are available:
347 AnyDBM_File AutoLoader base Carp Config Cwd constant
348 DynaLoader Exporter File::Spec integer lib strict Symbol
349 vars warnings XSLoader
350 - The following extensions are available:
351 attrs Compress::Zlib Cwd Data::Dumper Devel::Peek Digest::MD5 DynaLoader
352 Fcntl File::Glob Filter::Util::Call IO List::Util MIME::Base64
353 PerlIO::scalar PerlIO::via SDBM_File Socket Storable Time::HiRes
354 - The following extensions are missing for various technical reasons:
355 B ByteLoader Devel::DProf Devel::PPPort Encode GDBM_File
356 I18N::Langinfo IPC::SysV NDBM_File Opcode PerlIO::encoding POSIX
357 re Safe Sys::Hostname Sys::Syslog
358 threads threads::shared Unicode::Normalize
359 - Using MakeMaker or the Module::* to build and install modules
361 - Building XS other than the ones in the core is not supported.
363 Since this is 0.something release, any future releases are almost
364 guaranteed to be binary incompatible. As a sign of this the Symbian
365 symbol exports are kept unfrozen and the .def files rebuilt every
372 - Perl 5.9.3 (patch level 25741)
373 - Compress::Zlib and IO::Zlib supported
376 We maintain the binary incompatibility.