1PERLSYMBIAN(1)         Perl Programmers Reference Guide         PERLSYMBIAN(1)
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3
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NAME

6       README.symbian - Perl version 5 on Symbian OS
7

DESCRIPTION

9       This document describes various features of the Symbian operating
10       system that will affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just Perl) is
11       compiled and/or runs.
12
13       NOTE: this port (as of 0.4.1) does not compile into a Symbian OS GUI
14       application, but instead it results in a Symbian DLL.  The DLL includes
15       a C++ class called CPerlBase, which one can then (derive from and) use
16       to embed Perl into applications, see symbian/README.
17
18       The base port of Perl to Symbian only implements the basic POSIX-like
19       functionality; it does not implement any further Symbian or Series 60,
20       Series 80, or UIQ bindings for Perl.
21
22       It is also possible to generate Symbian executables for "miniperl" and
23       "perl", but since there is no standard command line interface for
24       Symbian (nor full keyboards in the devices), these are useful mainly as
25       demonstrations.
26
27   Compiling Perl on Symbian
28       (0) You need to have the appropriate Symbian SDK installed.
29
30           These instructions have been tested under various Nokia Series 60
31           Symbian SDKs (1.2 to 2.6, 2.8 should also work, 1.2 compiles but
32           does not work), Series 80 2.0, and Nokia 7710 (Series 90) SDK.
33           You can get the SDKs from Forum Nokia (http://www.forum.nokia.com/).
34           A very rough port ("it compiles") to UIQ 2.1 has also been made.
35
36           A prerequisite for any of the SDKs is to install ActivePerl
37           from ActiveState, http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/
38
39           Having the SDK installed also means that you need to have either
40           the Metrowerks CodeWarrior installed (2.8 and 3.0 were used in testing)
41           or the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 installed (SP3 minimum, SP5 recommended).
42
43           Note that for example the Series 60 2.0 VC SDK installation talks
44           about ActivePerl build 518, which does no more (as of mid-2005) exist
45           at the ActiveState website.  The ActivePerl 5.8.4 build 810 was
46           used successfully for compiling Perl on Symbian.  The 5.6.x ActivePerls
47           do not work.
48
49           Other SDKs or compilers like Visual.NET, command-line-only
50           Visual.NET, Borland, GnuPoc, or sdk2unix have not been tried.
51
52           These instructions almost certainly won't work with older Symbian
53           releases or other SDKs.  Patches to get this port running in other
54           releases, SDKs, compilers, platforms, or devices are naturally welcome.
55
56       (1) Get a Perl source code distribution (for example the file
57           perl-5.9.2.tar.gz is fine) from http://www.cpan.org/src/
58           and unpack it in your the C:/Symbian directory of your Windows
59           system.
60
61       (2) Change to the perl source directory.
62
63               cd c:\Symbian\perl-5.x.x
64
65       (3) Run the following script using the perl coming with the SDK
66
67               perl symbian\config.pl
68
69           You must use the cmd.exe, the Cygwin shell will not work.
70           The PATH must include the SDK tools, including a Perl,
71           which should be the case under cmd.exe.  If you do not
72           have that, see the end of symbian\sdk.pl for notes of
73           how your environment should be set up for Symbian compiles.
74
75       (4) Build the project, either by
76
77               make all
78
79           in cmd.exe or by using either the Metrowerks CodeWarrior
80           or the Visual C++ 6.0, or the Visual Studio 8 (the Visual C++
81           2005 Express Edition works fine).
82
83           If you use the VC IDE, you will have to run F<symbian\config.pl>
84           first using the cmd.exe, and then run 'make win.mf vc6.mf' to generate
85           the VC6 makefiles and workspaces.  "make vc6" will compile for the VC6,
86           and "make cw" for the CodeWarrior.
87
88           The following SDK and compiler configurations and Nokia phones were
89           tested at some point in time (+ = compiled and PerlApp run, - = not),
90           both for Perl 5.8.x and 5.9.x:
91
92               SDK     | VC | CW |
93               --------+----+----+---
94               S60 1.2 | +  | +  | 3650 (*)
95               S60 2.0 | +  | +  | 6600
96               S60 2.1 | -  | +  | 6670
97               S60 2.6 | +  | +  | 6630
98               S60 2.8 | +  | +  | (not tested in a device)
99               S80 2.6 | -  | +  | 9300
100               S90 1.1 | +  | -  | 7710
101               UIQ 2.1 | -  | +  | (not tested in a device)
102
103           (*) Compiles but does not work, unfortunately, a problem with Symbian.
104
105           If you are using the 'make' directly, it is the GNU make from the SDKs,
106           and it will invoke the right make commands for the Windows emulator
107           build and the Arm target builds ('thumb' by default) as necessary.
108
109           The build scripts assume the 'absolute style' SDK installs under C:,
110           the 'subst style' will not work.
111
112           If using the VC IDE, to build use for example the File->Open Workspace->
113           C:\Symbian\8.0a\S60_2nd_FP2\epoc32\build\symbian\perl\perl\wins\perl.dsw
114           The emulator binaries will appear in the same directory.
115
116           If using the VC IDE, you will a lot of warnings in the beginning of
117           the build because a lot of headers mentioned by the source cannot
118           be found, but this is not serious since those headers are not used.
119
120           The Metrowerks will give a lot of warnings about unused variables and
121           empty declarations, you can ignore those.
122
123           When the Windows and Arm DLLs are built do not be scared by a very long
124           messages whizzing by: it is the "export freeze" phase where the whole
125           (rather large) API of Perl is listed.
126
127           Once the build is completed you need to create the DLL SIS file by
128
129               make perldll.sis
130
131           which will create the file perlXYZ.sis (the XYZ being the Perl version)
132           which you can then install into your Symbian device: an easy way
133           to do this is to send them via Bluetooth or infrared and just open
134           the messages.
135
136           Since the total size of all Perl SIS files once installed is
137           over 2 MB, it is recommended to do the installation into a
138           memory card (drive E:) instead of the C: drive.
139
140           The size of the perlXYZ.SIS is about 370 kB but once it is in the
141           device it is about one 750 kB (according to the application manager).
142
143           The perlXYZ.sis includes only the Perl DLL: to create an additional
144           SIS file which includes some of the standard (pure) Perl libraries,
145           issue the command
146
147               make perllib.sis
148
149           Some of the standard Perl libraries are included, but not all:
150           see L</HISTORY> or F<symbian\install.cfg> for more details
151           (250 kB -> 700 kB).
152
153           Some of the standard Perl XS extensions (see L</HISTORY> are
154           also available:
155
156               make perlext.sis
157
158           which will create perlXYZext.sis (290 kB -> 770 kB).
159
160           To compile the demonstration application PerlApp you need first to
161           install the Perl headers under the SDK.
162
163           To install the Perl headers and the class CPerlBase documentation
164           so that you no more need the Perl sources around to compile Perl
165           applications using the SDK:
166
167               make sdkinstall
168
169           The destination directory is C:\Symbian\perl\X.Y.Z.  For more
170           details, see F<symbian\PerlBase.pod>.
171
172           Once the headers have been installed, you can create a SIS for
173           the PerlApp:
174
175               make perlapp.sis
176
177           The perlapp.sis (11 kB -> 16 kB) will be built in the symbian
178           subdirectory, but a copy will also be made to the main directory.
179
180           If you want to package the Perl DLLs (one for WINS, one for ARMI),
181           the headers, and the documentation:
182
183               make perlsdk.zip
184
185           which will create perlXYZsdk.zip that can be used in another
186           Windows system with the SDK, without having to compile Perl in
187           that system.
188
189           If you want to package the PerlApp sources:
190
191               make perlapp.zip
192
193           If you want to package the perl.exe and miniperl.exe, you
194           can use the perlexe.sis and miniperlexe.sis make targets.
195           You also probably want the perllib.sis for the libraries
196           and maybe even the perlapp.sis for the recognizer.
197
198           The make target 'allsis' combines all the above SIS targets.
199
200           To clean up after compilation you can use either of
201
202               make clean
203               make distclean
204
205           depending on how clean you want to be.
206
207   Compilation problems
208       If you see right after "make" this
209
210           cat makefile.sh >makefile
211           'cat' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
212           operable program or batch file.
213
214       it means you need to (re)run the symbian\config.pl.
215
216       If you get the error
217
218               'perl' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
219               operable program or batch file.
220
221       you may need to reinstall the ActivePerl.
222
223       If you see this
224
225           ren makedef.pl nomakedef.pl
226           The system cannot find the file specified.
227           C:\Symbian\...\make.exe: [rename_makedef] Error 1 (ignored)
228
229       please ignore it since it is nothing serious (the build process of
230       renames the Perl makedef.pl as nomakedef.pl to avoid confusing it with
231       a makedef.pl of the SDK).
232
233   PerlApp
234       The PerlApp application demonstrates how to embed Perl interpreters to
235       a Symbian application.  The "Time" menu item runs the following Perl
236       code: "print "Running in ", $^O, "\n", scalar localtime", the
237       "Oneliner" allows one to type in Perl code, and the "Run" opens a file
238       chooser for selecting a Perl file to run.
239
240       The PerlApp also is started when the "Perl recognizer" (also included
241       and installed) detects a Perl file being activated througg the GUI, and
242       offers either to install it under \Perl (if the Perl file is in the
243       inbox of the messaging application) or to run it (if the Perl file is
244       under \Perl).
245
246   sisify.pl
247       In the symbian subdirectory there is sisify.pl utility which can be
248       used to package Perl scripts and/or Perl library directories into SIS
249       files, which can be installed to the device.  To run the sisify.pl
250       utility, you will need to have the 'makesis' and 'uidcrc' utilities
251       already installed.  If you don't have the Win32 SDKs, you may try for
252       example http://gnupoc.sourceforge.net/ or
253       http://symbianos.org/~andreh/.
254
255   Using Perl in Symbian
256       First of all note that you have full access to the Symbian device when
257       using Perl: you can do a lot of damage to your device (like removing
258       system files) unless you are careful.  Please do take backups before
259       doing anything.
260
261       The Perl port has been done for the most part using the Symbian
262       standard POSIX-ish STDLIB library. It is a reasonably complete library,
263       but certain corners of such emulation libraries that tend to be left
264       unimplemented on non-UNIX platforms have been left unimplemented also
265       this time: fork(), signals(), user/group ids, select() working for
266       sockets, non-blocking sockets, and so forth.  See the file
267       symbian/config.sh and look for 'undef' to find the unsupported APIs (or
268       from Perl use Config).
269
270       The filesystem of Symbian devices uses DOSish syntax, "drives"
271       separated from paths by a colon, and backslashes for the path.  The
272       exact assignment of the drives probably varies between platforms, but
273       for example in Series 60 you might see C: as the (flash) main memory,
274       D: as the RAM drive, E: as the memory card (MMC), Z: as the ROM.  In
275       Series 80 D: is the memory card.  As far the devices go the NUL: is the
276       bit bucket, the COMx: are the serial lines, IRCOMx: are the IR ports,
277       TMP: might be C:\System\Temp.  Remember to double those backslashes in
278       doublequoted strings.
279
280       The Perl DLL is installed in \System\Libs\.  The Perl libraries and
281       extension DLLs are installed in \System\Libs\Perl\X.Y.Z\.  The PerlApp
282       is installed in \System\Apps\, and the SIS also installs a couple of
283       demo scripts in \Perl\ (C:\Mydocs\Perl\ on Nokia 7710).
284
285       Note that the Symbian filesystem is very picky: it strongly prefers the
286       \ instead of the /.
287
288       When doing XS / Symbian C++ programming include first the Symbian
289       headers, then any standard C/POSIX headers, then Perl headers, and
290       finally any application headers.
291
292       New() and Copy() are unfortunately used by both Symbian and Perl code
293       so you'll have to play cpp games if you need them.  PerlBase.h
294       undefines the Perl definitions and redefines them as PerlNew() and
295       PerlCopy().
296

TO DO

298       Lots.  See symbian\TODO.
299

WARNING

301       As of Perl Symbian port version 0.4.1 any part of Perl's standard
302       regression test suite has not been run on a real Symbian device using
303       the ported Perl, so innumerable bugs may lie in wait.  Therefore there
304       is absolutely no warranty.
305

NOTE

307       When creating and extending application programming interfaces (APIs)
308       for Symbian or Series 60 or Series 80 or Series 90 it is suggested that
309       trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names are not used in the
310       API names.  Instead, developers should consider basing the API naming
311       in the existing (C++, or maybe Java) public component and API naming,
312       modified as appropriate by the rules of the programming language the
313       new APIs are for.
314
315       Nokia is a registered trademark of Nokia Corporation. Nokia's product
316       names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nokia.  Other product
317       and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks or trade names of
318       their respective owners.
319

AUTHOR

321       Jarkko Hietaniemi
322
324       Copyright (c) 2004-2005 Nokia.  All rights reserved.
325
326       Copyright (c) 2006-2007 Jarkko Hietaniemi.
327

LICENSE

329       The Symbian port is licensed under the same terms as Perl itself.
330

HISTORY

332       ·   0.1.0: April 2005
333
334           (This will show as "0.01" in the Symbian Installer.)
335
336             - The console window is a very simple console indeed: one can
337               get the newline with "000" and the "C" button is a backspace.
338               Do not expect a terminal capable of vt100 or ANSI sequences.
339               The console is also "ASCII", you cannot input e.g. any accented
340               letters.  Because of obvious physical constraints the console is
341               also very small: (in Nokia 6600) 22 columns, 17 rows.
342             - The following libraries are available:
343               AnyDBM_File AutoLoader base Carp Config Cwd constant
344               DynaLoader Exporter File::Spec integer lib strict Symbol
345               vars warnings XSLoader
346             - The following extensions are available:
347               attrs Compress::Zlib Cwd Data::Dumper Devel::Peek Digest::MD5 DynaLoader
348               Fcntl File::Glob Filter::Util::Call IO List::Util MIME::Base64
349               PerlIO::scalar PerlIO::via SDBM_File Socket Storable Time::HiRes
350             - The following extensions are missing for various technical reasons:
351               B ByteLoader Devel::DProf Devel::PPPort Encode GDBM_File
352               I18N::Langinfo IPC::SysV NDBM_File Opcode PerlIO::encoding POSIX
353               re Safe Sys::Hostname Sys::Syslog
354               threads threads::shared Unicode::Normalize
355             - Using MakeMaker or the Module::* to build and install modules
356               is not supported.
357             - Building XS other than the ones in the core is not supported.
358
359           Since this is 0.something release, any future releases are almost
360           guaranteed to be binary incompatible.  As a sign of this the
361           Symbian symbol exports are kept unfrozen and the .def files fully
362           rebuilt every time.
363
364       ·   0.2.0: October 2005
365
366             - Perl 5.9.3 (patch level 25741)
367             - Compress::Zlib and IO::Zlib supported
368             - sisify.pl added
369
370           We maintain the binary incompatibility.
371
372       ·   0.3.0: October 2005
373
374             - Perl 5.9.3 (patch level 25911)
375             - Series 80 2.0 and UIQ 2.1 support
376
377           We maintain the binary incompatibility.
378
379       ·   0.4.0: November 2005
380
381             - Perl 5.9.3 (patch level 26052)
382             - adding a sample Symbian extension
383
384           We maintain the binary incompatibility.
385
386       ·   0.4.1: December 2006
387
388             - Perl 5.9.5-to-be (patch level 30002)
389             - added extensions: Compress/Raw/Zlib, Digest/SHA,
390               Hash/Util, Math/BigInt/FastCalc, Text/Soundex, Time/Piece
391             - port to S90 1.1 by alexander smishlajev
392
393           We maintain the binary incompatibility.
394
395       ·   0.4.2: March 2007
396
397             - catchup with Perl 5.9.5-to-be (patch level 30812)
398             - tested to build with Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
399               (which uses Microsoft Visual C 8, instead of the old VC6),
400               SDK used for testing S60_2nd_FP3 aka 8.1a
401
402           We maintain the binary incompatibility.
403
404
405
406perl v5.10.1                      2009-08-22                    PERLSYMBIAN(1)
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