| 1 | If you read this file _as_is_, just ignore the funny characters you | 
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| 2 | see. It is written in the POD format (see pod/perlpod.pod) which is | 
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| 3 | specially designed to be readable as is. | 
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| 4 |  | 
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| 5 | =head1 NAME | 
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| 6 |  | 
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| 7 | README.epoc - Perl for EPOC | 
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| 8 |  | 
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| 9 | =head1 SYNOPSIS | 
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| 10 |  | 
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| 11 | Perl 5 README file for the EPOC Release 5 operating system. | 
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| 12 |  | 
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| 13 | =head1 INTRODUCTION | 
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| 14 |  | 
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| 15 | EPOC is an OS for palmtops and mobile phones. For more informations look at: | 
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| 16 | http://www.symbian.com/ | 
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| 17 |  | 
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| 18 | This is a port of perl to the epocemx SDK by Eberhard Mattes, which | 
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| 19 | itself uses the SDK by symbian. Essentially epocemx it is a POSIX | 
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| 20 | look alike environment for the EPOC OS.  For more information look at: | 
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| 21 | http://epocemx.sourceforge.net/ | 
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| 22 |  | 
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| 23 | perl and epocemx runs on Epoc Release 5 machines: Psion 5mx, 5mx Pro, | 
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| 24 | Psion Revo, Psion Netbook and on the Ericsson M128. It may run on Epoc | 
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| 25 | Release 3 Hardware (Series 5 classic), too. For more information about | 
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| 26 | this hardware please refer to http://www.psion.com/ | 
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| 27 |  | 
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| 28 | Vendors which like to have support for their devices are free to send | 
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| 29 | me a sample. | 
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| 30 |  | 
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| 31 | =head1 INSTALLING PERL ON EPOC | 
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| 32 |  | 
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| 33 | You can download a ready-to-install version from | 
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| 34 | http://www.oflebbe.de/oflebbe/perl/ | 
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| 35 |  | 
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| 36 | You will need at least ~6MB free space in order to install and run perl. | 
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| 37 |  | 
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| 38 | Please install the emxusr.sis package from | 
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| 39 | http://epocemx.sourceforge.net/ first. | 
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| 40 |  | 
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| 41 | Install perl.sis on the EPOC machine. If you do not know how to do | 
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| 42 | that, consult your PsiWin documentation. | 
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| 43 |  | 
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| 44 | Perl itself and its standard library is using 4 MB disk space. | 
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| 45 | Unicode support and some other modules are left out. (For details, | 
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| 46 | please look into epoc/createpkg.pl). If you like to use these modules, | 
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| 47 | you are free to copy them from a current perl release. | 
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| 48 |  | 
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| 49 | =head1 STARTING PERL ON EPOC | 
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| 50 |  | 
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| 51 | Please use the epocemx shell to start perl. perl integrates with the | 
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| 52 | conventions of epocemx. | 
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| 53 |  | 
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| 54 | =head2 Editors on Epoc | 
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| 55 |  | 
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| 56 | A suitable text editor can be downloaded from symbian | 
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| 57 | http://www.symbian.com/developer/downloads/files/editor.zip | 
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| 58 |  | 
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| 59 | =head2 Features of Perl on Epoc | 
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| 60 |  | 
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| 61 | The built-in function EPOC::getcwd returns the current directory. | 
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| 62 |  | 
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| 63 | =head2 Restrictions of Perl on Epoc | 
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| 64 |  | 
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| 65 | Features are left out, because of restrictions of the POSIX support in | 
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| 66 | EPOC: | 
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| 67 |  | 
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| 68 | =over 4 | 
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| 69 |  | 
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| 70 | =item * | 
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| 71 |  | 
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| 72 | socket IO is only implemented poorly. You can only use sysread and | 
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| 73 | syswrite on them. The commands read, write, print, <> do not work for | 
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| 74 | sockets. This may change iff epocemx supports sockets. | 
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| 75 |  | 
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| 76 | =item * | 
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| 77 |  | 
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| 78 | kill, alarm and signals. Do not try to use them. This may be | 
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| 79 | impossible to implement on EPOC. | 
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| 80 |  | 
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| 81 | =item * | 
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| 82 |  | 
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| 83 | select is missing. | 
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| 84 |  | 
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| 85 | =item * | 
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| 86 |  | 
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| 87 | binmode does not exist. (No CR LF to LF translation for text files) | 
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| 88 |  | 
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| 89 | =item * | 
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| 90 |  | 
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| 91 | EPOC does not handle the notion of current drive and current | 
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| 92 | directory very well (i.e. not at all, but it tries hard to emulate | 
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| 93 | one). See PATH. | 
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| 94 |  | 
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| 95 | =item * | 
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| 96 |  | 
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| 97 | Heap is limited to 4MB. | 
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| 98 |  | 
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| 99 | =item * | 
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| 100 |  | 
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| 101 | Dynamic loading is not implemented. | 
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| 102 |  | 
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| 103 | =back | 
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| 104 |  | 
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| 105 | =head2 Compiling Perl 5 on the EPOC cross compiling environment | 
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| 106 |  | 
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| 107 | Sorry, this is far too short. | 
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| 108 |  | 
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| 109 | =over 4 | 
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| 110 |  | 
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| 111 | =item * | 
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| 112 |  | 
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| 113 | You will need the epocemx SDK from Eberhard Mattes. | 
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| 114 |  | 
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| 115 | =item * | 
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| 116 |  | 
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| 117 | Get the Perl sources from your nearest CPAN site. | 
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| 118 |  | 
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| 119 | =item * | 
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| 120 |  | 
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| 121 | Unpack the sources. | 
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| 122 |  | 
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| 123 | =item * | 
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| 124 |  | 
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| 125 | Build a native perl from this sources... Make sure to save the | 
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| 126 | miniperl executable as miniperl.native. | 
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| 127 |  | 
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| 128 | Start again from scratch | 
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| 129 |  | 
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| 130 | cp epoc/* . | 
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| 131 | ./Configure -S | 
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| 132 | make | 
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| 133 | cp miniperl.native miniperl | 
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| 134 | touch miniperl.exe | 
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| 135 | make | 
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| 136 | perl createpkg.pl | 
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| 137 |  | 
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| 138 | emxsis perl.pkg perl.sis | 
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| 139 |  | 
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| 140 | =back | 
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| 141 |  | 
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| 142 | =head1 SUPPORT STATUS OF PERL ON EPOC | 
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| 143 |  | 
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| 144 | I'm offering this port "as is". You can ask me questions, but I can't | 
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| 145 | guarantee I'll be able to answer them. Since the port to epocemx is | 
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| 146 | quite new, please check the web for updates first. | 
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| 147 |  | 
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| 148 | Very special thanks to Eberhard Mattes for epocemx. | 
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| 149 |  | 
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| 150 | =head1 AUTHOR | 
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| 151 |  | 
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| 152 | Olaf Flebbe <olaf@oflebbe.de> | 
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| 153 | http://www.oflebbe.de/oflebbe/perl/ | 
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| 154 |  | 
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| 155 | =head1 LAST UPDATE | 
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| 156 |  | 
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| 157 | 2003-01-18 | 
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| 158 |  | 
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| 159 | =cut | 
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