README.epoc - Perl for EPOC
Perl 5 README file for the EPOC operating system.
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 EPOC. It runs on ER5 machines: Psion 5mx, 5mx Pro, Psion Revo, Psion Netbook and on the Ericson M128. 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.
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 2.5 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.
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.
Alternatively you can use the epocemx shell
If you have an 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 perlrun for details.
You can stop a running perl process in the task list by closing the application `STDOUT'. You can use the kill command in the epocemx shell to kill perl.
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.
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
A suitable text editor can be downloaded from symbian http://www.symbian.com/developer/downloads/files/editor.zip
The built-in function EPOC::getcwd returns the current directory.
Features are left out, because of restrictions of the POSIX support in EPOC:
backquoting, pipes etc.
system() does not inherit resources 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.
Sorry, this is far too short.
You will need the epocemx SDK from Eberhard Mattes. Watch out for an announcement.
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 perl createpkg.pl emxsis perl.pkg perl.sis
I'm offering this port "as is". You can ask me questions, but I can't guarantee I'll be able to answer them.
Olaf Flebbe <o.flebbe@science-computing.de> http://www.science-computing.de/o.flebbe/perl/
2001-12-12
To install if, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm if
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install if
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.