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PERLEPOC(1)


NAME

  README.epoc - Perl for EPOC


SYNOPSIS

  Perl 5 README file for the EPOC operating system.


INTRODUCTION

  EPOC is a OS for palmtops and mobile phones. For more informations look at:
  http://www.symbian.com/

  This is a port of perl to EPOC. It runs on ER5 machines: Psion 5mx, 5mx
  Pro, Psion Revo and on the Ericson M128. I have no report about the Psion
  Netbook or the S7. It runs on ER3 Hardware (Series 5 classic), too. For
  more information about this hardware please refer to http://www.psion.com.

  Vendors which like to have support for their devices are free to send me a
  sample.


INSTALLING PERL ON EPOC

  You can download a ready-to-install version from http://www.science-
  computing.de/o.flebbe/perl. You may find other versions with some CPAN
  modules included at this location.

  You will need at least 4MB free space in order to install and run perl.

  Install perl.sis on the EPOC machine. If you do not know how to do that,
  consult your PsiWin documentation.

  Perl itself and its standard library is using 2.9 MB disk space.  Unicode
  support and some other modules are left out. (For details, please look into
  epoc/createpkg.pl). If you like to use these modules, you are free to copy
  them from a current perl release.


STARTING PERL ON EPOC

  For ER5 machines, you can get the software Perlstart http://www.science-
  computing.de/o.flebbe/perl. It contains file recognizers for files with the
  extension .pl and .pm. With it you can start perl with a double click on
  the camel icon. Be sure to configure the perl installation drive first. You
  can even provide a script with a special commandline, if needed.

  Alternativly you can get ESHELL from symbian:
  http://developer.epocworld.com/downloads/progs/Eshell.zip

  Running ESHELL you can enter: perl -de 0 in order to run the perl debugger.
  If you are leaving perl, you get into the system screen. You have to switch
  back manually to ESHELL. When perl is running, you will see a task with the
  name STDOUT in the task list.

  If you have a ER3 machine (i.e. a PSION 5), you may have to supply the full
  path to the perl executable C:\system\programs\perl.exe.

  If you need to set the current directory of perl, please use the command
  line switch '-x'. See the perlrun manpage for details.


STOPPING PERL ON EPOC

  You can stop a running perl process in the task list by closing the
  application `STDOUT'. You cannot stop a running perl process if it has not
  written anyting to stdout or stderr! Be very cautious with I/O redirection.
  You will have to reboot the PDA!


USING PERL ON EPOC

  I/O Redirection

  You can redirect the output with the UNIX bourne shell syntax (this is
  built into perl rather then eshell) For instance the following command line
  will run the script test.pl with the output redirected to stdout_file, the
  errors to stderr_file and input from stdin_file.

  perl test.pl >stdout_file <stdin_file 2>stderr_file

  Alternatively you can use 2>&1 in order to add the standard error output to
  stdout.

  PATH Names

  ESHELL looks for executables in ?:/System/Programs. The SIS file installs
  perl in this special folder directory. The default drive and path are the
  same as folder the executable resides. The EPOC filesystem is case-
  preserving, not case-sensitive.

  The EPOC estdlib uses the ?: syntax for establishing a search order: First
  in C: (RAM), then on D: (CF Card, if present) and last in Z: (ROM). For
  instance ?:\a.txt searches for C:\a.txt, D:\a.txt (and Z:\a.txt)

  The perl @INC search path is implemented with '?:'. Your perl executable
  can live on a different drive than the perl library or even your scripts.

  ESHELL paths have to be written with backslashes '\', file arguments to
  perl with slashes '/'. Remember that I/O redirection is done internally in
  perl, so please use slashes for redirects.

  perl.exe C:/test.pl >C:/output.txt

  Editors

  A suitable text editor can be downloaded from symbian
   http://developer.epocworld.com/downloads/progs/Editor.zip

  Features

  The built-in function EPOC::getcwd returns the current directory.

  Restrictions

  Features are left out, because of restrictions of the POSIX support in
  EPOC:

  ·   backquoting, pipes etc.

  ·   system() does not inherit ressources like: file descriptors,
      environment etc.

  ·   signal, kill, alarm. Do not try to use them. This may be impossible to
      implement on EPOC.

  ·   select is missing.

  ·   binmode does not exist. (No CR LF to LF translation for text files)

  ·   EPOC does not handle the notion of current drive and current directory
      very well (i.e. not at all, but it tries hard to emulate one) See PATH.

  ·   Heap is limited to 4MB.

  ·   Dynamic loading is not implemented.

  Compiling Perl 5 on the EPOC cross compiling environment

  Sorry, this is far too short.

  ·   You will need the C++ SDK from http://developer.epocworld.com/.

  ·   You will need to set up the cross SDK from http://www.science-
      computing.de/o.flebbe/sdk

  ·   You may have to adjust config.sh (cc, cppflags) to reflect your epoc
      and SDK location.

  ·   Get the Perl sources from your nearest CPAN site.

  ·   Unpack the sources.

  ·   Build a native perl from this sources... Make sure to save the miniperl
      executable as miniperl.native.

      Start again from scratch

	    cp epoc/* .
	    ./Configure -S
	    make
	    cp miniperl.native miniperl
	    make
	    make ext/Errno/pm_to_blib
	    perl link.pl perlmain.o lib/auto/DynaLoader/DynaLoader.a \
	       lib/auto/Data/Dumper/Dumper.a \
	       lib/auto/File/Glob/Glob.a lib/auto/IO/IO.a \
	       lib/auto/Socket/Socket.a \
	       lib/auto/Fcntl/Fcntl.a lib/auto/Sys/Hostname/Hostname.a \
	      perl.a `cat ext.libs`
	    perl createpkg.pl

	    wine G:/bin/makesis perl.pkg perl.sis


SUPPORT STATUS

  I'm offering this port "as is". You can ask me questions, but I can't
  guarantee I'll be able to answer them.


AUTHOR

  Olaf Flebbe <o.flebbe@science-computing.de> http://www.science-
  computing.de/o.flebbe/perl/


LAST UPDATE

  2001-02-26

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