1PERLSYMBIAN(1)         Perl Programmers Reference Guide         PERLSYMBIAN(1)
2
3
4

NAME

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

TO DO

296       Lots.  See symbian/TODO.
297

WARNING

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

NOTE

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

AUTHOR

319       Jarkko Hietaniemi
320
322       Copyright (c) 2004-2005 Nokia.  All rights reserved.
323
324       Copyright (c) 2006-2007 Jarkko Hietaniemi.
325

LICENSE

327       The Symbian port is licensed under the same terms as Perl itself.
328

HISTORY

330       ·   0.1.0: April 2005
331
332           (This will show as "0.01" in the Symbian Installer.)
333
334            - The console window is a very simple console indeed: one can
335              get the newline with "000" and the "C" button is a backspace.
336              Do not expect a terminal capable of vt100 or ANSI sequences.
337              The console is also "ASCII", you cannot input e.g. any accented
338              letters.  Because of obvious physical constraints the console is
339              also very small: (in Nokia 6600) 22 columns, 17 rows.
340            - The following libraries are available:
341              AnyDBM_File AutoLoader base Carp Config Cwd constant
342              DynaLoader Exporter File::Spec integer lib strict Symbol
343              vars warnings XSLoader
344            - The following extensions are available:
345              attributes Compress::Zlib Cwd Data::Dumper Devel::Peek
346              Digest::MD5 DynaLoader Fcntl File::Glob Filter::Util::Call
347              IO List::Util MIME::Base64
348              PerlIO::scalar PerlIO::via SDBM_File Socket Storable Time::HiRes
349            - The following extensions are missing for various technical
350              reasons:
351              B ByteLoader Devel::DProf Devel::PPPort Encode GDBM_File
352              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 v5.32.1                      2021-03-31                    PERLSYMBIAN(1)
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