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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. | |
4 | ||
5 | =head1 NAME | |
6 | ||
7 | README.macosx - Perl under Mac OS X | |
8 | ||
9 | =head1 SYNOPSIS | |
10 | ||
11 | This document briefly describes perl under Mac OS X. | |
12 | ||
13 | ||
14 | =head1 DESCRIPTION | |
15 | ||
16 | The latest Perl (5.8.1-RC3 as of this writing) builds without changes | |
17 | under Mac OS X. Under the 10.3 "Panther" release, all self-tests pass, | |
18 | and all standard features are supported. | |
19 | ||
20 | Earlier Mac OS X releases did not include a completely thread-safe libc, | |
21 | so threading is not fully supported. Also, earlier releases included a | |
22 | somewhat buggy libdb, so some of the DB_File tests are known to fail on | |
23 | those releases. | |
24 | ||
25 | ||
26 | =head1 INSTALLATION PREFIX | |
27 | ||
28 | The default installation location for this release uses the traditional | |
29 | UNIX directory layout under /usr/local. This is the recommended location | |
30 | for most users, and will leave the Apple-supplied Perl and its modules | |
31 | undisturbed. | |
32 | ||
33 | Using an installation prefix of '/usr' will result in a directory layout | |
34 | that mirrors that of Apple's default Perl, with core modules stored in | |
35 | '/System/Library/Perl/${version}', CPAN modules stored in | |
36 | '/Library/Perl/${version}', and the addition of | |
37 | '/Network/Library/Perl/${version}' to @INC for modules that are stored | |
38 | on a file server and used by many Macs. | |
39 | ||
40 | ||
41 | =head1 LIBPERL AND PREBINDING | |
42 | ||
43 | Mac OS X ships with a dynamically-loaded libperl, but the default for | |
44 | this release is to compile a static libperl. The reason for this is | |
45 | pre-binding. Dynamic libraries can be pre-bound to a specific address in | |
46 | memory in order to decrease load time. To do this, one needs to be aware | |
47 | of the location and size of all previously-loaded libraries. Apple | |
48 | collects this information as part of their overall OS build process, and | |
49 | thus has easy access to it when building Perl, but ordinary users would | |
50 | need to go to a great deal of effort to obtain the information needed | |
51 | for pre-binding. | |
52 | ||
53 | You can override the default and build a shared libperl if you wish, but | |
54 | the load time will be significantly greater than either the static | |
55 | library, or Apple's pre-bound dynamic library. | |
56 | ||
57 | ||
58 | =head1 UPDATING PANTHER | |
59 | ||
60 | As of this writing, the latest Perl release that has been tested and | |
61 | approved for inclusion in the 10.3 "Panther" release of Mac OS X is | |
62 | 5.8.1 RC3. It is currently unknown whether the final 5.8.1 release will | |
63 | be made in time to be tested and included with Panther. | |
64 | ||
65 | If the final release of Perl 5.8.1 is not made in time to be included | |
66 | with Panther, it is recommended that you wait for an official Apple | |
67 | update to the OS, rather than attempting to update it yourself. In most | |
68 | cases, if you need a newer Perl, it is preferable to install it in some | |
69 | other location, such as /usr/local or /opt, rather than overwriting the | |
70 | system Perl. | |
71 | ||
72 | If you find that you do need to update the system Perl, there is one | |
73 | potential issue. If you upgrade using the default static libperl, you | |
74 | will find that the dynamic libperl supplied by Apple will not be | |
75 | deleted. If both libraries are present when an application that links | |
76 | against libperl is built, ld will link against the dynamic library by | |
77 | default. So, if you need to replace Apple's dynamic libperl with a | |
78 | static libperl, you need to be sure to delete the older dynamic library | |
79 | after you've installed the update. | |
80 | ||
81 | Note that this is only an issue when updating from an older build of the | |
82 | same Perl version. If you're updating from (for example) 5.8.1 to 5.8.2, | |
83 | this issue won't affect you. | |
84 | ||
85 | ||
86 | =head1 MACPERL | |
87 | ||
88 | Quite a bit has been written about MacPerl, the Perl distribution for | |
89 | "Classic MacOS" - that is, versions 9 and earlier of MacOS. Because it | |
90 | runs in environment that's very different from that of UNIX, many things | |
91 | are done differently in MacPerl. Modules are installed using a different | |
92 | procedure, Perl itself is built differently, path names are different, | |
93 | etc. | |
94 | ||
95 | From the perspective of a Perl programmer, Mac OS X is more like a | |
96 | traditional UNIX than Classic MacOS. If you find documentation that | |
97 | refers to a special procedure that's needed for MacOS that's drastically | |
98 | different from the instructions provided for UNIX, the MacOS | |
99 | instructions are quite often intended for MacPerl on Classic MacOS. In | |
100 | that case, the correct procedure on Mac OS X is usually to follow the | |
101 | UNIX instructions, rather than the MacPerl instructions. | |
102 | ||
103 | ||
104 | =head1 CARBON | |
105 | ||
106 | MacPerl ships with a number of modules that are used to access the | |
107 | classic MacOS toolbox. Many of these modules have been updated to use | |
108 | Mac OS X's newer "Carbon" toolbox, and are available from CPAN in the | |
109 | "Mac::Carbon" module. | |
110 | ||
111 | ||
112 | =head1 COCOA | |
113 | ||
114 | There are two ways to use Cocoa from Perl. Apple's PerlObjCBridge | |
115 | module, included with Mac OS X, can be used by standalone scripts to | |
116 | access Foundation (i.e. non-GUI) classes and objects. | |
117 | ||
118 | An alternative is CamelBones, a framework that allows access to both | |
119 | Foundation and AppKit classes and objects, so that full GUI applications | |
120 | can be built in Perl. CamelBones can be found on SourceForge, at | |
121 | L<http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/camelbones/>. | |
122 | ||
123 | ||
124 | =head1 AUTHOR | |
125 | ||
126 | This README was written by Sherm Pendley E<lt>sherm@dot-app.orgE<gt>. | |
127 | ||
128 | =head1 DATE | |
129 | ||
130 | Last modified 2003.07.31. |