README.epoc - Perl for EPOC

Perl 5 README file for the EPOC Release 5 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 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.

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

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.

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

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:

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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.

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kill, alarm and signals. Do not try to use them. This may be impossible to implement on EPOC.

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select is missing.

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binmode does not exist. (No CR LF to LF translation for text files)

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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.

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Heap is limited to 4MB.

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Dynamic loading is not implemented.

Sorry, this is far too short.

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You will need the epocemx SDK from Eberhard Mattes.

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Get the Perl sources from your nearest CPAN site.

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Unpack the sources.

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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

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.

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

2003-01-18