summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/gnu/usr.bin/perl/README.epoc
blob: 5cfa4dfadf0c64345de346dab392e2ab94f0c973 (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
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
specially designed to be readable as is.

=head1 NAME

README.epoc - Perl for EPOC

=head1 SYNOPSIS

Perl 5 README file for the EPOC Release 5 operating system.

=head1 INTRODUCTION

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

This is a port of perl to the epocemx SDK by Eberhard Mattes, which
itself uses the SDK by symbian. Essentially epocemx it is a POSIX
look alike environment for the EPOC OS.  For more information look at: 
http://epocemx.sourceforge.net/

perl and epocemx runs on Epoc Release 5 machines: Psion 5mx, 5mx Pro,
Psion Revo, Psion Netbook and on the Ericsson M128. It may run on Epoc
Release 3 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. 

=head1 INSTALLING PERL ON EPOC

You can download a ready-to-install version from
http://www.oflebbe.de/oflebbe/perl/

You will need at least ~6MB free space in order to install and run perl.

Please install the emxusr.sis package from
http://epocemx.sourceforge.net/ first.

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 4 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.

=head1 STARTING PERL ON EPOC

Please use the epocemx shell to start perl. perl integrates with the
conventions of epocemx. 

=head2 Editors on Epoc

A suitable text editor can be downloaded from symbian
http://www.symbian.com/developer/downloads/files/editor.zip

=head2 Features of Perl on Epoc

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

=head2 Restrictions of Perl on Epoc

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

=over 4

=item * 

socket IO is only implemented poorly. You can only use sysread and
syswrite on them. The commands read, write, print, <> do not work for
sockets. This may change iff epocemx supports sockets.

=item *

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

=item *

select is missing.

=item *

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

=item *

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.

=item *

Heap is limited to 4MB.

=item *

Dynamic loading is not implemented.

=back

=head2 Compiling Perl 5 on the EPOC cross compiling environment

Sorry, this is far too short.

=over 4

=item *

You will need the epocemx SDK from Eberhard Mattes. 

=item *

Get the Perl sources from your nearest CPAN site.

=item *

Unpack the sources. 

=item *

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
      touch miniperl.exe
      make
      perl createpkg.pl 

      emxsis perl.pkg perl.sis

=back

=head1 SUPPORT STATUS OF PERL ON EPOC

I'm offering this port "as is". You can ask me questions, but I can't
guarantee I'll be able to answer them. Since the port to epocemx is
quite new, please check the web for updates first.

Very special thanks to Eberhard Mattes for epocemx.

=head1 AUTHOR

Olaf Flebbe <olaf@oflebbe.de>
http://www.oflebbe.de/oflebbe/perl/

=head1 LAST UPDATE

2003-01-18

=cut