Commit | Line | Data |
---|---|---|
9a997319 JH |
1 | If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you |
2 | see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is | |
3 | specially designed to be readable as is. | |
4d2c4e07 | 4 | |
9a997319 JH |
5 | =head1 NAME |
6 | ||
7 | README.epoc - Perl for EPOC | |
4d2c4e07 | 8 | |
9a997319 JH |
9 | =head1 SYNOPSIS |
10 | ||
11 | Perl 5 README file for the EPOC operating system. | |
12 | ||
13 | =head1 INTRODUCTION | |
4d2c4e07 | 14 | |
d1be9408 | 15 | EPOC is an OS for palmtops and mobile phones. For more informations look at: |
3a2f06e9 | 16 | http://www.symbian.com/ |
4d2c4e07 | 17 | |
d5ff79b3 | 18 | This is a port of perl to EPOC. It runs on ER5 machines: Psion 5mx, |
02a99678 JH |
19 | 5mx Pro, Psion Revo, Psion Netbook and on the Ericson M128. It runs on |
20 | ER3 Hardware (Series 5 classic), too. For more information about this | |
21 | hardware please refer to http://www.psion.com. | |
d5ff79b3 OF |
22 | |
23 | Vendors which like to have support for their devices are free to send | |
24 | me a sample. | |
4d2c4e07 | 25 | |
9a997319 | 26 | =head1 INSTALLING PERL ON EPOC |
4d2c4e07 | 27 | |
d5ff79b3 OF |
28 | You can download a ready-to-install version from |
29 | http://www.science-computing.de/o.flebbe/perl. You may find other | |
30 | versions with some CPAN modules included at this location. | |
31 | ||
32 | You will need at least ~4MB free space in order to install and run | |
33 | perl. | |
34 | ||
35 | Install perl.sis on the EPOC machine. If you do not know how to do | |
36 | that, consult your PsiWin documentation. | |
37 | ||
38 | Perl itself and its standard library is using 2.5 MB disk space. | |
39 | Unicode support and some other modules are left out. (For details, | |
40 | please look into epoc/createpkg.pl). If you like to use these modules, | |
41 | you are free to copy them from a current perl release. | |
ae2d1787 | 42 | |
d5ff79b3 | 43 | =head1 STARTING PERL ON EPOC |
ae2d1787 | 44 | |
d5ff79b3 OF |
45 | For ER5 machines, you can get the software Perlstart |
46 | http://www.science-computing.de/o.flebbe/perl. It contains file | |
47 | recognizers for files with the extension .pl and .pm. With it you can | |
48 | start perl with a double click on the camel icon. Be sure to configure | |
49 | the perl installation drive first. You can even provide a script with | |
50 | a special commandline, if needed. | |
ae2d1787 | 51 | |
02a99678 | 52 | Alternatively you can use the epocemx shell |
d5ff79b3 | 53 | |
d1be9408 | 54 | If you have an ER3 machine (i.e. a PSION 5), you may have to supply the |
d5ff79b3 OF |
55 | full path to the perl executable C:\system\programs\perl.exe. |
56 | ||
57 | If you need to set the current directory of perl, please use the | |
58 | command line switch '-x'. See L<perlrun> for details. | |
59 | ||
60 | =head1 STOPPING PERL ON EPOC | |
61 | ||
62 | You can stop a running perl process in the task list by closing the | |
02a99678 JH |
63 | application `STDOUT'. You can use the kill command in the epocemx |
64 | shell to kill perl. | |
3a2f06e9 | 65 | |
9a997319 JH |
66 | =head1 USING PERL ON EPOC |
67 | ||
a83b6f46 | 68 | =head2 I/O Redirection on Epoc |
ae2d1787 OF |
69 | |
70 | You can redirect the output with the UNIX bourne shell syntax (this is | |
71 | built into perl rather then eshell) For instance the following command | |
72 | line will run the script test.pl with the output redirected to | |
73 | stdout_file, the errors to stderr_file and input from stdin_file. | |
74 | ||
75 | perl test.pl >stdout_file <stdin_file 2>stderr_file | |
76 | ||
9a997319 | 77 | Alternatively you can use 2>&1 in order to add the standard error |
3a2f06e9 GS |
78 | output to stdout. |
79 | ||
a83b6f46 | 80 | =head2 PATH Names on Epoc |
ae2d1787 | 81 | |
ed79a026 OF |
82 | ESHELL looks for executables in ?:/System/Programs. The SIS file |
83 | installs perl in this special folder directory. The default drive and | |
84 | path are the same as folder the executable resides. The EPOC | |
85 | filesystem is case-preserving, not case-sensitive. | |
86 | ||
d5ff79b3 OF |
87 | The EPOC estdlib uses the ?: syntax for establishing a search order: |
88 | First in C: (RAM), then on D: (CF Card, if present) and last in Z: | |
89 | (ROM). For instance ?:\a.txt searches for C:\a.txt, D:\a.txt (and | |
90 | Z:\a.txt) | |
ed79a026 | 91 | |
d5ff79b3 OF |
92 | The perl @INC search path is implemented with '?:'. Your perl |
93 | executable can live on a different drive than the perl library or even | |
94 | your scripts. | |
ae2d1787 | 95 | |
ed79a026 OF |
96 | ESHELL paths have to be written with backslashes '\', file arguments |
97 | to perl with slashes '/'. Remember that I/O redirection is done | |
98 | internally in perl, so please use slashes for redirects. | |
ae2d1787 | 99 | |
ed79a026 | 100 | perl.exe C:/test.pl >C:/output.txt |
4d2c4e07 | 101 | |
a83b6f46 | 102 | =head2 Editors on Epoc |
4d2c4e07 | 103 | |
d5ff79b3 | 104 | A suitable text editor can be downloaded from symbian |
02a99678 | 105 | http://www.symbian.com/developer/downloads/files/editor.zip |
ed79a026 | 106 | |
a83b6f46 | 107 | =head2 Features of Perl on Epoc |
4d2c4e07 | 108 | |
ed79a026 | 109 | The built-in function EPOC::getcwd returns the current directory. |
3a2f06e9 | 110 | |
a83b6f46 | 111 | =head2 Restrictions of Perl on Epoc |
4d2c4e07 | 112 | |
ed79a026 OF |
113 | Features are left out, because of restrictions of the POSIX support in |
114 | EPOC: | |
4d2c4e07 | 115 | |
9a997319 JH |
116 | =over 4 |
117 | ||
118 | =item * | |
119 | ||
120 | backquoting, pipes etc. | |
121 | ||
122 | =item * | |
123 | ||
210b36aa | 124 | system() does not inherit resources like: file descriptors, |
9a997319 JH |
125 | environment etc. |
126 | ||
127 | =item * | |
128 | ||
129 | signal, kill, alarm. Do not try to use them. This may be | |
130 | impossible to implement on EPOC. | |
131 | ||
132 | =item * | |
133 | ||
134 | select is missing. | |
135 | ||
136 | =item * | |
ae2d1787 | 137 | |
9a997319 | 138 | binmode does not exist. (No CR LF to LF translation for text files) |
ae2d1787 | 139 | |
9a997319 | 140 | =item * |
ae2d1787 | 141 | |
9a997319 JH |
142 | EPOC does not handle the notion of current drive and current |
143 | directory very well (i.e. not at all, but it tries hard to emulate | |
144 | one) See PATH. | |
ae2d1787 | 145 | |
9a997319 | 146 | =item * |
ae2d1787 | 147 | |
d5ff79b3 | 148 | Heap is limited to 4MB. |
4d2c4e07 | 149 | |
9a997319 | 150 | =item * |
4d2c4e07 | 151 | |
d5ff79b3 | 152 | Dynamic loading is not implemented. |
4d2c4e07 | 153 | |
9a997319 JH |
154 | =back |
155 | ||
156 | =head2 Compiling Perl 5 on the EPOC cross compiling environment | |
4d2c4e07 | 157 | |
3a2f06e9 | 158 | Sorry, this is far too short. |
4d2c4e07 | 159 | |
9a997319 JH |
160 | =over 4 |
161 | ||
162 | =item * | |
163 | ||
02a99678 JH |
164 | You will need the epocemx SDK from Eberhard Mattes. Watch out for an |
165 | announcement. | |
4d2c4e07 | 166 | |
9a997319 | 167 | =item * |
4d2c4e07 | 168 | |
9a997319 | 169 | Get the Perl sources from your nearest CPAN site. |
4d2c4e07 | 170 | |
9a997319 | 171 | =item * |
4d2c4e07 | 172 | |
9a997319 | 173 | Unpack the sources. |
ae2d1787 | 174 | |
9a997319 | 175 | =item * |
ae2d1787 | 176 | |
d5ff79b3 OF |
177 | Build a native perl from this sources... Make sure to save the |
178 | miniperl executable as miniperl.native. | |
179 | ||
180 | Start again from scratch | |
ed79a026 | 181 | |
3a2f06e9 | 182 | cp epoc/* . |
f83d2536 | 183 | ./Configure -S |
d5ff79b3 | 184 | make |
3a2f06e9 | 185 | cp miniperl.native miniperl |
d5ff79b3 | 186 | make |
3a2f06e9 | 187 | perl createpkg.pl |
4d2c4e07 | 188 | |
02a99678 | 189 | emxsis perl.pkg perl.sis |
4d2c4e07 | 190 | |
9a997319 | 191 | =back |
4d2c4e07 | 192 | |
a83b6f46 | 193 | =head1 SUPPORT STATUS OF PERL ON EPOC |
4d2c4e07 | 194 | |
ed79a026 OF |
195 | I'm offering this port "as is". You can ask me questions, but I can't |
196 | guarantee I'll be able to answer them. | |
9a997319 JH |
197 | |
198 | =head1 AUTHOR | |
199 | ||
d5ff79b3 OF |
200 | Olaf Flebbe <o.flebbe@science-computing.de> |
201 | http://www.science-computing.de/o.flebbe/perl/ | |
9a997319 JH |
202 | |
203 | =head1 LAST UPDATE | |
204 | ||
02a99678 | 205 | 2001-12-12 |
9a997319 JH |
206 | |
207 | =cut |