Move Module::Pluggable from ext/ to cpan/

[perl5.git] / README.ce

diff --git a/README.ce b/README.ce
index 23378a9..25cef84 100644 (file)
--- a/README.ce
+++ b/README.ce
@@ -2,27 +2,67 @@ If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you
 see.  It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is
 specifically designed to be readable as is.
 
 see.  It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is
 specifically designed to be readable as is.
 

-=head1 Name
+=head1 NAME

 
 

-Perl for WinCE
+perlce - Perl for WinCE

 
 

-=head1 Description
+=head1 Building Perl for WinCE
+
+=head2 DESCRIPTION

 
 This file gives the instructions for building Perl5.8 and above for
 WinCE.  Please read and understand the terms under which this
 software is distributed.
 
 
 This file gives the instructions for building Perl5.8 and above for
 WinCE.  Please read and understand the terms under which this
 software is distributed.
 

-=head1 Build
+=head2 General explanations on cross-compiling WinCE

 
 

-This section describes the steps to be performed to build PerlCE.
-You may find additional and newer information about building perl
-for WincE using following URL:
+=over
+
+=item *
+
+C<miniperl> is built. This is a single executable (without DLL), intended
+to run on Win32, and it will facilitate remaining build process; all binaries
+built after it are foreign and should not run locally.
+
+C<miniperl> is built using C<./win32/Makefile>; this is part of normal
+build process invoked as dependency from wince/Makefile.ce
+
+=item *
+
+After C<miniperl> is built, C<configpm> is invoked to create right C<Config.pm>
+in right place and its corresponding Cross.pm.
+
+Unlike Win32 build, miniperl will not have C<Config.pm> of host within reach;
+it rather will use C<Config.pm> from within cross-compilation directories.
+
+File C<Cross.pm> is dead simple: for given cross-architecture places in @INC
+a path where perl modules are, and right C<Config.pm> in that place.
+
+That said, C<miniperl -Ilib -MConfig -we 1> should report an error, because
+it can not find C<Config.pm>. If it does not give an error -- wrong C<Config.pm>
+is substituted, and resulting binaries will be a mess.
+
+C<miniperl -MCross -MConfig -we 1> should run okay, and it will provide right
+C<Config.pm> for further compilations.

 
 

-  http://perlce.sourceforge.net
+=item *

 
 

-There should also be pre-built binaries there.
+During extensions build phase, a script C<./win32/buldext.pl> is invoked,
+which in turn steps in C<./ext> subdirectories and performs a build of
+each extension in turn.

 
 

-=head2 Tools & SDK
+All invokes of C<Makefile.PL> are provided with C<-MCross> so to enable cross-
+compile.
+
+=back
+
+=head2 BUILD
+
+This section describes the steps to be performed to build PerlCE.
+You may find additional information about building perl for WinCE
+at L<http://perlce.sourceforge.net> and some pre-built binaries.
+
+=head3 Tools & SDK

 
 For compiling, you need following:
 
 
 For compiling, you need following:
 


@@ -38,36 +78,26 @@ For compiling, you need following:
 
 =back
 
 
 =back
 

-Needed source files can be downloaded via:
-www.rainer-keuchel.de/wince/dirlist.html
+Needed source files can be downloaded at
+L<http://www.rainer-keuchel.de/wince/dirlist.html>

 
 

-=head2 Make
+=head3 Make

 
 

-Please pay attention that starting from 5.8.0 miniperl *is* built
-and it facilitates in further building process. This means that
-in addition to compiler installation for mobile device you also need
-to have Microsoft Visual C++ installed as well.
-
-On the bright side, you do not need to edit any files from ./win32
-subdirectory. Normally you only need to edit ./wince/compile.bat
+Normally you only need to edit C<./win32/ce-helpers/compile.bat>

 to reflect your system and run it.
 
 to reflect your system and run it.
 

-File ./wince/compile.bat is actually a wrapper to call
-nmake -f makefile.ce with appropriate parameters and it accepts extra
-parameters and forwards them to "nmake" command as additional
+File C<./win32/ce-helpers/compile.bat> is actually a wrapper to call
+C<nmake -f makefile.ce> with appropriate parameters and it accepts extra
+parameters and forwards them to C<nmake> command as additional

 arguments. You should pass target this way.
 
 arguments. You should pass target this way.
 

-Currently default target build all required perls, also there exists
-target 'dist' that prepares distribution file set. Other targets
-are currently in development stage.
-
-So, to prepare distribution you need to do following:
+To prepare distribution you need to do following:

 
 =over 4
 
 
 =over 4
 

-=item * go to ./wince subdirectory
+=item * go to C<./win32> subdirectory

 
 

-=item * edit file compile.bat
+=item * edit file C<./win32/ce-helpers/compile.bat>

 
 =item * run 
   compile.bat
 
 =item * run 
   compile.bat


@@ -77,15 +107,200 @@ So, to prepare distribution you need to do following:
 
 =back
 
 
 =back
 

-Before you start, you need to build celib.dll and w32console.
-See instructions in these packages for building.
+C<Makefile.ce> has C<CROSS_NAME> macro, and it is used further to refer to
+your cross-compilation scheme. You could assign a name to it, but this
+is not necessary, because by default it is assigned after your machine
+configuration name, such as "wince-sh3-hpc-wce211", and this is enough
+to distinguish different builds at the same time. This option could be
+handy for several different builds on same platform to perform, say,
+threaded build. In a following example we assume that all required
+environment variables are set properly for C cross-compiler (a special
+*.bat file could fit perfectly to this purpose) and your C<compile.bat>
+has proper "MACHINE" parameter set, to, say, C<wince-mips-pocket-wce300>.
+
+  compile.bat
+  compile.bat dist
+  compile.bat CROSS_NAME=mips-wce300-thr "USE_ITHREADS=define" "USE_IMP_SYS=define" "USE_MULTI=define"
+  compile.bat CROSS_NAME=mips-wce300-thr "USE_ITHREADS=define" "USE_IMP_SYS=define" "USE_MULTI=define" dist
+
+If all goes okay and no errors during a build, you'll get two independent
+distributions: C<wince-mips-pocket-wce300> and C<mips-wce300-thr>.
+
+Target C<dist> prepares distribution file set. Target C<zipdist> performs
+same as C<dist> but additionally compresses distribution files into zip
+archive.
+
+NOTE: during a build there could be created a number (or one) of C<Config.pm>
+for cross-compilation ("foreign" C<Config.pm>) and those are hidden inside
+C<../xlib/$(CROSS_NAME)> with other auxilary files, but, and this is important to
+note, there should be B<no> C<Config.pm> for host miniperl.
+If you'll get an error that perl could not find Config.pm somewhere in building
+process this means something went wrong. Most probably you forgot to
+specify a cross-compilation when invoking miniperl.exe to Makefile.PL
+When building an extension for cross-compilation your command line should
+look like
+
+  ..\miniperl.exe -I..\lib -MCross=mips-wce300-thr Makefile.PL
+
+or just
+
+  ..\miniperl.exe -I..\lib -MCross Makefile.PL
+
+to refer a cross-compilation that was created last time.
+
+All questions related to building for WinCE devices could be asked in
+F<perlce-user@lists.sourceforge.net> mailing list.
+
+=head1 Using Perl on WinCE
+
+=head2 DESCRIPTION
+
+PerlCE is currently linked with a simple console window, so it also
+works on non-hpc devices.
+
+The simple stdio implementation creates the files C<stdin.txt>,
+C<stdout.txt> and C<stderr.txt>, so you might examine them if your
+console has only a liminted number of cols.
+
+When exitcode is non-zero, a message box appears, otherwise the
+console closes, so you might have to catch an exit with
+status 0 in your program to see any output.
+
+stdout/stderr now go into the files C</perl-stdout.txt> and
+C</perl-stderr.txt.>
+
+PerlIDE is handy to deal with perlce.
+
+=head2 LIMITATIONS
+
+No fork(), pipe(), popen() etc.
+
+=head2 ENVIRONMENT
+
+All environment vars must be stored in HKLM\Environment as
+strings. They are read at process startup.
+
+=over
+
+=item PERL5LIB

 
 

-=head1 Acknowledgements
+Usual perl lib path (semi-list).
+
+=item PATH
+
+Semi-list for executables.
+
+=item TMP
+
+- Tempdir.
+
+=item UNIXROOTPATH
+
+- Root for accessing some special files, i.e. C</dev/null>, C</etc/services>.
+
+=item ROWS/COLS
+
+- Rows/cols for console.
+
+=item HOME
+
+- Home directory.
+
+=item CONSOLEFONTSIZE
+
+- Size for console font.
+
+=back
+
+You can set these with cereg.exe, a (remote) registry editor
+or via the PerlIDE.
+
+=head2 REGISTRY
+
+To start perl by clicking on a perl source file, you have
+to make the according entries in HKCR (see C<ce-helpers/wince-reg.bat>).
+cereg.exe (which must be executed on a desktop pc with
+ActiveSync) is reported not to work on some devices.
+You have to create the registry entries by hand using a 
+registry editor.
+
+=head2 XS
+
+The following Win32-Methods are built-in:
+
+       newXS("Win32::GetCwd", w32_GetCwd, file);
+       newXS("Win32::SetCwd", w32_SetCwd, file);
+       newXS("Win32::GetTickCount", w32_GetTickCount, file);
+       newXS("Win32::GetOSVersion", w32_GetOSVersion, file);
+       newXS("Win32::IsWinNT", w32_IsWinNT, file);
+       newXS("Win32::IsWin95", w32_IsWin95, file);
+       newXS("Win32::IsWinCE", w32_IsWinCE, file);
+       newXS("Win32::CopyFile", w32_CopyFile, file);
+       newXS("Win32::Sleep", w32_Sleep, file);
+       newXS("Win32::MessageBox", w32_MessageBox, file);
+       newXS("Win32::GetPowerStatus", w32_GetPowerStatus, file);
+       newXS("Win32::GetOemInfo", w32_GetOemInfo, file);
+       newXS("Win32::ShellEx", w32_ShellEx, file);
+
+=head2 BUGS
+
+Opening files for read-write is currently not supported if
+they use stdio (normal perl file handles).
+
+If you find bugs or if it does not work at all on your
+device, send mail to the address below. Please report
+the details of your device (processor, ceversion, 
+devicetype (hpc/palm/pocket)) and the date of the downloaded
+files. 
+
+=head2 INSTALLATION
+
+Currently installation instructions are at L<http://perlce.sourceforge.net/>.
+
+After installation & testing processes will stabilize, information will
+be more precise.
+
+=head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

 
 The port for Win32 was used as a reference.
 
 
 The port for Win32 was used as a reference.
 

+=head1 History of WinCE port
+
+=over
+
+=item 5.6.0
+
+Initial port of perl to WinCE. It was performed in separate directory
+named C<wince>. This port was based on contents of C<./win32> directory.
+C<miniperl> was not built, user must have HOST perl and properly edit 
+C<makefile.ce> to reflect this.
+
+=item 5.8.0
+
+wince port was kept in the same C<./wince> directory, and C<wince/Makefile.ce>
+was used to invoke native compiler to create HOST miniperl, which then
+facilitates cross-compiling process.
+Extension building support was added.
+
+=item 5.9.4
+
+Two directories C<./win32> and C<./wince> were merged, so perlce build
+process comes in C<./win32> directory.
+
+=back
+

 =head1 AUTHORS
 
 =head1 AUTHORS
 

-Rainer Keuchel (keuchel@netwave.de)
-Vadim Konovalov (vkonovalov@spb.lucent.com)
+=over

 
 

+=item Rainer Keuchel <coyxc@rainer-keuchel.de>
+
+provided initial port of Perl, which appears to be most essential work, as
+it was a breakthrough on having Perl ported at all.
+Many thanks and obligations to Rainer!
+
+=item Vadim Konovalov
+
+made further support of WinCE port.
+
+=back