PERLEPOC



PERLEPOC

NAME
SYNOPSIS
INTRODUCTION
INSTALLING PERL ON EPOC
STARTING PERL ON EPOC
SUPPORT STATUS OF PERL ON EPOC
AUTHOR
LAST UPDATE

NAME

README.epoc − Perl for EPOC

SYNOPSIS

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

INTRODUCTION

EPOC is an OS for palmtops and mobile phones. For more information 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.

INSTALLING PERL ON EPOC

You can download a ready-to-install version from <http://www.oflebbe.de/perl/perl5.html>

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.

STARTING PERL ON EPOC

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

Features of Perl on Epoc
The built-in function EPOC::getcwd returns the current directory.

Restrictions of Perl on Epoc
Features are left out, because of restrictions of the POSIX support in EPOC:

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.

kill, alarm and signals. 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.

Compiling Perl 5 on the EPOC cross compiling environment
Sorry, this is far too short.

You will need the epocemx SDK from Eberhard Mattes.

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
      touch miniperl.exe
      make
      perl createpkg.pl
      emxsis perl.pkg perl.sis

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.

AUTHOR

Olaf Flebbe <olaf@oflebbe.de> <http://www.oflebbe.de/perl/perl5.html>

LAST UPDATE

2003−01−18






Opportunity


Personal Opportunity - Free software gives you access to billions of dollars of software at no cost. Use this software for your business, personal use or to develop a profitable skill. Access to source code provides access to a level of capabilities/information that companies protect though copyrights. Open source is a core component of the Internet and it is available to you. Leverage the billions of dollars in resources and capabilities to build a career, establish a business or change the world. The potential is endless for those who understand the opportunity.

Business Opportunity - Goldman Sachs, IBM and countless large corporations are leveraging open source to reduce costs, develop products and increase their bottom lines. Learn what these companies know about open source and how open source can give you the advantage.





Free Software


Free Software provides computer programs and capabilities at no cost but more importantly, it provides the freedom to run, edit, contribute to, and share the software. The importance of free software is a matter of access, not price. Software at no cost is a benefit but ownership rights to the software and source code is far more significant.


Free Office Software - The Libre Office suite provides top desktop productivity tools for free. This includes, a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation engine, drawing and flowcharting, database and math applications. Libre Office is available for Linux or Windows.





Free Books


The Free Books Library is a collection of thousands of the most popular public domain books in an online readable format. The collection includes great classical literature and more recent works where the U.S. copyright has expired. These books are yours to read and use without restrictions.


Source Code - Want to change a program or know how it works? Open Source provides the source code for its programs so that anyone can use, modify or learn how to write those programs themselves. Visit the GNU source code repositories to download the source.





Education


Study at Harvard, Stanford or MIT - Open edX provides free online courses from Harvard, MIT, Columbia, UC Berkeley and other top Universities. Hundreds of courses for almost all major subjects and course levels. Open edx also offers some paid courses and selected certifications.


Linux Manual Pages - A man or manual page is a form of software documentation found on Linux/Unix operating systems. Topics covered include computer programs (including library and system calls), formal standards and conventions, and even abstract concepts.