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1If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you see.
2It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is specially
3designed to be readable as is.
4
5=head1 NAME
6
7perlsymbian - Perl version 5 on Symbian OS
8
9=head1 DESCRIPTION
10
11This document describes various features of the Symbian operating
12system that will affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just Perl)
13is compiled and/or runs.
14
15B<NOTE: this port (as of 0.4.1) does not compile into a Symbian
16OS GUI application, but instead it results in a Symbian DLL.>
17The 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>.
19
20The base port of Perl to Symbian only implements the basic POSIX-like
21functionality; it does not implement any further Symbian or Series 60,
22Series 80, or UIQ bindings for Perl.
23
24It is also possible to generate Symbian executables for "miniperl"
25and "perl", but since there is no standard command line interface
26for Symbian (nor full keyboards in the devices), these are useful
27mainly as demonstrations.
28
29=head2 Compiling Perl on Symbian
30
31(0) You need to have the appropriate Symbian SDK installed.
32
33These instructions have been tested under various Nokia Series 60
34Symbian SDKs (1.2 to 2.6, 2.8 should also work, 1.2 compiles but
35does not work), Series 80 2.0, and Nokia 7710 (Series 90) SDK.
36You can get the SDKs from Forum Nokia (L<http://www.forum.nokia.com/>).
37A very rough port ("it compiles") to UIQ 2.1 has also been made.
38
39A prerequisite for any of the SDKs is to install ActivePerl
40from ActiveState, L<http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/>
41
42Having the SDK installed also means that you need to have either
43the Metrowerks CodeWarrior installed (2.8 and 3.0 were used in testing)
44or the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 installed (SP3 minimum, SP5 recommended).
45
46Note that for example the Series 60 2.0 VC SDK installation talks
47about ActivePerl build 518, which does no more (as of mid-2005) exist
48at the ActiveState website. The ActivePerl 5.8.4 build 810 was
49used successfully for compiling Perl on Symbian. The 5.6.x ActivePerls
50do not work.
51
52Other SDKs or compilers like Visual.NET, command-line-only
53Visual.NET, Borland, GnuPoc, or sdk2unix have not been tried.
54
55These instructions almost certainly won't work with older Symbian
56releases or other SDKs. Patches to get this port running in other
57releases, SDKs, compilers, platforms, or devices are naturally welcome.
58
59(1) Get a Perl source code distribution (for example the file
60perl-5.9.2.tar.gz is fine) from L<http://www.cpan.org/src/>
61and unpack it in your the C:/Symbian directory of your Windows
62system.
63
64(2) Change to the perl source directory.
65
66 cd c:\Symbian\perl-5.x.x
67
68(3) Run the following script using the perl coming with the SDK
69
70 perl symbian\config.pl
71
72You must use the cmd.exe, the Cygwin shell will not work.
73The PATH must include the SDK tools, including a Perl,
74which should be the case under cmd.exe. If you do not
75have that, see the end of symbian\sdk.pl for notes of
76how your environment should be set up for Symbian compiles.
77
78(4) Build the project, either by
79
80 make all
81
82in cmd.exe or by using either the Metrowerks CodeWarrior
83or the Visual C++ 6.0, or the Visual Studio 8 (the Visual C++
842005 Express Edition works fine).
85
86If you use the VC IDE, you will have to run F<symbian\config.pl>
87first using the cmd.exe, and then run 'make win.mf vc6.mf' to generate
88the VC6 makefiles and workspaces. "make vc6" will compile for the VC6,
89and "make cw" for the CodeWarrior.
90
91The following SDK and compiler configurations and Nokia phones were
92tested at some point in time (+ = compiled and PerlApp run, - = not),
93both for Perl 5.8.x and 5.9.x:
94
95 SDK | VC | CW |
96 --------+----+----+---
97 S60 1.2 | + | + | 3650 (*)
98 S60 2.0 | + | + | 6600
99 S60 2.1 | - | + | 6670
100 S60 2.6 | + | + | 6630
101 S60 2.8 | + | + | (not tested in a device)
102 S80 2.6 | - | + | 9300
103 S90 1.1 | + | - | 7710
104 UIQ 2.1 | - | + | (not tested in a device)
105
106 (*) Compiles but does not work, unfortunately, a problem with Symbian.
107
108If you are using the 'make' directly, it is the GNU make from the SDKs,
109and it will invoke the right make commands for the Windows emulator
110build and the Arm target builds ('thumb' by default) as necessary.
111
112The build scripts assume the 'absolute style' SDK installs under C:,
113the 'subst style' will not work.
114
115If using the VC IDE, to build use for example the File->Open Workspace->
116C:\Symbian\8.0a\S60_2nd_FP2\epoc32\build\symbian\perl\perl\wins\perl.dsw
117The emulator binaries will appear in the same directory.
118
119If using the VC IDE, you will a lot of warnings in the beginning of
120the build because a lot of headers mentioned by the source cannot
121be found, but this is not serious since those headers are not used.
122
123The Metrowerks will give a lot of warnings about unused variables and
124empty declarations, you can ignore those.
125
126When the Windows and Arm DLLs are built do not be scared by a very long
127messages whizzing by: it is the "export freeze" phase where the whole
128(rather large) API of Perl is listed.
129
130Once the build is completed you need to create the DLL SIS file by
131
132 make perldll.sis
133
134which will create the file perlXYZ.sis (the XYZ being the Perl version)
135which you can then install into your Symbian device: an easy way
136to do this is to send them via Bluetooth or infrared and just open
137the messages.
138
139Since the total size of all Perl SIS files once installed is
140over 2 MB, it is recommended to do the installation into a
141memory card (drive E:) instead of the C: drive.
142
143The size of the perlXYZ.SIS is about 370 kB but once it is in the
144device it is about one 750 kB (according to the application manager).
145
146The perlXYZ.sis includes only the Perl DLL: to create an additional
147SIS file which includes some of the standard (pure) Perl libraries,
148issue the command
149
150 make perllib.sis
151
152Some of the standard Perl libraries are included, but not all:
153see L</HISTORY> or F<symbian\install.cfg> for more details
154(250 kB -> 700 kB).
155
156Some of the standard Perl XS extensions (see L</HISTORY> are
157also available:
158
159 make perlext.sis
160
161which will create perlXYZext.sis (290 kB -> 770 kB).
162
163To compile the demonstration application PerlApp you need first to
164install the Perl headers under the SDK.
165
166To install the Perl headers and the class CPerlBase documentation
167so that you no more need the Perl sources around to compile Perl
168applications using the SDK:
169
170 make sdkinstall
171
172The destination directory is C:\Symbian\perl\X.Y.Z. For more
173details, see F<symbian\PerlBase.pod>.
174
175Once the headers have been installed, you can create a SIS for
176the PerlApp:
177
178 make perlapp.sis
179
180The perlapp.sis (11 kB -> 16 kB) will be built in the symbian
181subdirectory, but a copy will also be made to the main directory.
182
183If you want to package the Perl DLLs (one for WINS, one for ARMI),
184the headers, and the documentation:
185
186 make perlsdk.zip
187
188which will create perlXYZsdk.zip that can be used in another
189Windows system with the SDK, without having to compile Perl in
190that system.
191
192If you want to package the PerlApp sources:
193
194 make perlapp.zip
195
196If you want to package the perl.exe and miniperl.exe, you
197can use the perlexe.sis and miniperlexe.sis make targets.
198You also probably want the perllib.sis for the libraries
199and maybe even the perlapp.sis for the recognizer.
200
201The make target 'allsis' combines all the above SIS targets.
202
203To clean up after compilation you can use either of
204
205 make clean
206 make distclean
207
208depending on how clean you want to be.
209
210=head2 Compilation problems
211
212If you see right after "make" this
213
214 cat makefile.sh >makefile
215 'cat' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
216 operable program or batch file.
217
218it means you need to (re)run the F<symbian\config.pl>.
219
220If you get the error
221
222 'perl' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
223 operable program or batch file.
224
225you may need to reinstall the ActivePerl.
226
227If you see this
228
229 ren makedef.pl nomakedef.pl
230 The system cannot find the file specified.
231 C:\Symbian\...\make.exe: [rename_makedef] Error 1 (ignored)
232
233please ignore it since it is nothing serious (the build process of
234renames the Perl makedef.pl as nomakedef.pl to avoid confusing it
235with a makedef.pl of the SDK).
236
237=head2 PerlApp
238
239The PerlApp application demonstrates how to embed Perl interpreters
240to a Symbian application. The "Time" menu item runs the following
241Perl code: C<print "Running in ", $^O, "\n", scalar localtime>,
242the "Oneliner" allows one to type in Perl code, and the "Run"
243opens a file chooser for selecting a Perl file to run.
244
245The PerlApp also is started when the "Perl recognizer" (also included
246and installed) detects a Perl file being activated through the GUI,
247and offers either to install it under \Perl (if the Perl file is in
248the inbox of the messaging application) or to run it (if the Perl file
249is under \Perl).
250
251=head2 sisify.pl
252
253In the symbian subdirectory there is F<sisify.pl> utility which can be used
254to package Perl scripts and/or Perl library directories into SIS files,
255which can be installed to the device. To run the sisify.pl utility,
256you will need to have the 'makesis' and 'uidcrc' utilities already
257installed. If you don't have the Win32 SDKs, you may try for example
258L<http://gnupoc.sourceforge.net/> or L<http://symbianos.org/~andreh/>.
259
260=head2 Using Perl in Symbian
261
262First of all note that you have full access to the Symbian device
263when using Perl: you can do a lot of damage to your device (like
264removing system files) unless you are careful. Please do take
265backups before doing anything.
266
267The Perl port has been done for the most part using the Symbian
268standard POSIX-ish STDLIB library. It is a reasonably complete
269library, but certain corners of such emulation libraries that tend
270to be left unimplemented on non-UNIX platforms have been left
271unimplemented also this time: fork(), signals(), user/group ids,
272select() working for sockets, non-blocking sockets, and so forth.
273See the file F<symbian/config.sh> and look for 'undef' to find the
274unsupported APIs (or from Perl use Config).
275
276The filesystem of Symbian devices uses DOSish syntax, "drives"
277separated from paths by a colon, and backslashes for the path. The
278exact assignment of the drives probably varies between platforms, but
279for example in Series 60 you might see C: as the (flash) main memory,
280D: as the RAM drive, E: as the memory card (MMC), Z: as the ROM. In
281Series 80 D: is the memory card. As far the devices go the NUL: is
282the bit bucket, the COMx: are the serial lines, IRCOMx: are the IR
283ports, TMP: might be C:\System\Temp. Remember to double those
284backslashes in doublequoted strings.
285
286The Perl DLL is installed in \System\Libs\. The Perl libraries and
287extension DLLs are installed in \System\Libs\Perl\X.Y.Z\. The PerlApp
288is installed in \System\Apps\, and the SIS also installs a couple of
289demo scripts in \Perl\ (C:\Mydocs\Perl\ on Nokia 7710).
290
291Note that the Symbian filesystem is very picky: it strongly prefers
292the \ instead of the /.
293
294When doing XS / Symbian C++ programming include first the Symbian
295headers, then any standard C/POSIX headers, then Perl headers, and finally
296any application headers.
297
298New() and Copy() are unfortunately used by both Symbian and Perl code
299so you'll have to play cpp games if you need them. PerlBase.h undefines
300the Perl definitions and redefines them as PerlNew() and PerlCopy().
301
302=head1 TO DO
303
304Lots. See F<symbian/TODO>.
305
306=head1 WARNING
307
308As of Perl Symbian port version 0.4.1 any part of Perl's standard
309regression test suite has not been run on a real Symbian device using
310the ported Perl, so innumerable bugs may lie in wait. Therefore there
311is absolutely no warranty.
312
313=head1 NOTE
314
315When creating and extending application programming interfaces (APIs)
316for Symbian or Series 60 or Series 80 or Series 90 it is suggested
317that trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names are not used in
318the API names. Instead, developers should consider basing the API
319naming in the existing (C++, or maybe Java) public component and API
320naming, modified as appropriate by the rules of the programming
321language the new APIs are for.
322
323Nokia is a registered trademark of Nokia Corporation. Nokia's product
324names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nokia. Other product
325and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks or trade names of
326their respective owners.
327
328=head1 AUTHOR
329
330Jarkko Hietaniemi
331
332=head1 COPYRIGHT
333
334Copyright (c) 2004-2005 Nokia. All rights reserved.
335
336Copyright (c) 2006-2007 Jarkko Hietaniemi.
337
338=head1 LICENSE
339
340The Symbian port is licensed under the same terms as Perl itself.
341
342=head1 HISTORY
343
344=over 4
345
346=item *
347
3480.1.0: April 2005
349
350(This will show as "0.01" in the Symbian Installer.)
351
352 - The console window is a very simple console indeed: one can
353 get the newline with "000" and the "C" button is a backspace.
354 Do not expect a terminal capable of vt100 or ANSI sequences.
355 The console is also "ASCII", you cannot input e.g. any accented
356 letters. Because of obvious physical constraints the console is
357 also very small: (in Nokia 6600) 22 columns, 17 rows.
358 - The following libraries are available:
359 AnyDBM_File AutoLoader base Carp Config Cwd constant
360 DynaLoader Exporter File::Spec integer lib strict Symbol
361 vars warnings XSLoader
362 - The following extensions are available:
363 attributes Compress::Zlib Cwd Data::Dumper Devel::Peek
364 Digest::MD5 DynaLoader Fcntl File::Glob Filter::Util::Call
365 IO List::Util MIME::Base64
366 PerlIO::scalar PerlIO::via SDBM_File Socket Storable Time::HiRes
367 - The following extensions are missing for various technical
368 reasons:
369 B ByteLoader Devel::DProf Devel::PPPort Encode GDBM_File
370 I18N::Langinfo IPC::SysV NDBM_File Opcode PerlIO::encoding POSIX
371 re Safe Sys::Hostname Sys::Syslog
372 threads threads::shared Unicode::Normalize
373 - Using MakeMaker or the Module::* to build and install modules
374 is not supported.
375 - Building XS other than the ones in the core is not supported.
376
377Since this is 0.something release, any future releases are almost
378guaranteed to be binary incompatible. As a sign of this the Symbian
379symbol exports are kept unfrozen and the .def files fully rebuilt
380every time.
381
382=item *
383
3840.2.0: October 2005
385
386 - Perl 5.9.3 (patch level 25741)
387 - Compress::Zlib and IO::Zlib supported
388 - sisify.pl added
389
390We maintain the binary incompatibility.
391
392=item *
393
3940.3.0: October 2005
395
396 - Perl 5.9.3 (patch level 25911)
397 - Series 80 2.0 and UIQ 2.1 support
398
399We maintain the binary incompatibility.
400
401=item *
402
4030.4.0: November 2005
404
405 - Perl 5.9.3 (patch level 26052)
406 - adding a sample Symbian extension
407
408We maintain the binary incompatibility.
409
410=item *
411
4120.4.1: December 2006
413
414 - Perl 5.9.5-to-be (patch level 30002)
415 - added extensions: Compress/Raw/Zlib, Digest/SHA,
416 Hash/Util, Math/BigInt/FastCalc, Text/Soundex, Time/Piece
417 - port to S90 1.1 by alexander smishlajev
418
419We maintain the binary incompatibility.
420
421=item *
422
4230.4.2: March 2007
424
425 - catchup with Perl 5.9.5-to-be (patch level 30812)
426 - tested to build with Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
427 (which uses Microsoft Visual C 8, instead of the old VC6),
428 SDK used for testing S60_2nd_FP3 aka 8.1a
429
430We maintain the binary incompatibility.
431
432=back
433
434=cut