Platform SpecificPerl version 5 on Symbian OSDaftar Isi NAMEperlsymbian - Perl version 5 on Symbian OS DESCRIPTIONThis document describes various features of the Symbian operatingsystem that will affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just Perl)is compiled and/or runs. NOTE: this port (as of 0.4.1) does not compile into a SymbianOS GUI application, but instead it results in a Symbian DLL.The DLL includes a C++ class called CPerlBase, which one can then(derive from and) use to embed Perl into applications, see symbian/README. The base port of Perl to Symbian only implements the basic POSIX-likefunctionality; it does not implement any further Symbian or Series 60,Series 80, or UIQ bindings for Perl. It is also possible to generate Symbian executables for "miniperl"and "perl", but since there is no standard command line interfacefor Symbian (nor full keyboards in the devices), these are usefulmainly as demonstrations. Compiling Perl on Symbian(0) You need to have the appropriate Symbian SDK installed. - These instructions have been tested under various Nokia Series 60
- Symbian SDKs (1.2 to 2.6, 2.8 should also work, 1.2 compiles but
- does not work), Series 80 2.0, and Nokia 7710 (Series 90) SDK.
- You can get the SDKs from Forum Nokia (L<http://www.forum.nokia.com/>).
- A very rough port ("it compiles") to UIQ 2.1 has also been made.
- A prerequisite for any of the SDKs is to install ActivePerl
- from ActiveState, L<http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/>
- Having the SDK installed also means that you need to have either
- the Metrowerks CodeWarrior installed (2.8 and 3.0 were used in testing)
- or the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 installed (SP3 minimum, SP5 recommended).
- Note that for example the Series 60 2.0 VC SDK installation talks
- about ActivePerl build 518, which does no more (as of mid-2005) exist
- at the ActiveState website. The ActivePerl 5.8.4 build 810 was
- used successfully for compiling Perl on Symbian. The 5.6.x ActivePerls
- do not work.
- Other SDKs or compilers like Visual.NET, command-line-only
- Visual.NET, Borland, GnuPoc, or sdk2unix have not been tried.
- These instructions almost certainly won't work with older Symbian
- releases or other SDKs. Patches to get this port running in other
- releases, SDKs, compilers, platforms, or devices are naturally welcome.
(1) Get a Perl source code distribution (for example the file perl-5.9.2.tar.gz is fine) from http://www.cpan.org/src/ and unpack it in your the C:/Symbian directory of your Windows system. (2) Change to the perl source directory. - cd c:\Symbian\perl-5.x.x
(3) Run the following script using the perl coming with the SDK - perl symbian\config.pl
- You must use the cmd.exe, the Cygwin shell will not work.
- The PATH must include the SDK tools, including a Perl,
- which should be the case under cmd.exe. If you do not
- have that, see the end of symbian\sdk.pl for notes of
- how your environment should be set up for Symbian compiles.
(4) Build the project, either by - make all
- in cmd.exe or by using either the Metrowerks CodeWarrior
- or the Visual C++ 6.0, or the Visual Studio 8 (the Visual C++
- 2005 Express Edition works fine).
- If you use the VC IDE, you will have to run F<symbian\config.pl>
- first using the cmd.exe, and then run 'make win.mf vc6.mf' to generate
- the VC6 makefiles and workspaces. "make vc6" will compile for the VC6,
- and "make cw" for the CodeWarrior.
- The following SDK and compiler configurations and Nokia phones were
- tested at some point in time (+ = compiled and PerlApp run, - = not),
- both for Perl 5.8.x and 5.9.x:
- SDK | VC | CW |
- --------+----+----+---
- S60 1.2 | + | + | 3650 (*)
- S60 2.0 | + | + | 6600
- S60 2.1 | - | + | 6670
- S60 2.6 | + | + | 6630
- S60 2.8 | + | + | (not tested in a device)
- S80 2.6 | - | + | 9300
- S90 1.1 | + | - | 7710
- UIQ 2.1 | - | + | (not tested in a device)
- (*) Compiles but does not work, unfortunately, a problem with Symbian.
- If you are using the 'make' directly, it is the GNU make from the SDKs,
- and it will invoke the right make commands for the Windows emulator
- build and the Arm target builds ('thumb' by default) as necessary.
- The build scripts assume the 'absolute style' SDK installs under C:,
- the 'subst style' will not work.
- If using the VC IDE, to build use for example the File->Open Workspace->
- C:\Symbian\8.0a\S60_2nd_FP2\epoc32\build\symbian\perl\perl\wins\perl.dsw
- The emulator binaries will appear in the same directory.
- If using the VC IDE, you will a lot of warnings in the beginning of
- the build because a lot of headers mentioned by the source cannot
- be found, but this is not serious since those headers are not used.
- The Metrowerks will give a lot of warnings about unused variables and
- empty declarations, you can ignore those.
- When the Windows and Arm DLLs are built do not be scared by a very long
- messages whizzing by: it is the "export freeze" phase where the whole
- (rather large) API of Perl is listed.
- Once the build is completed you need to create the DLL SIS file by
- make perldll.sis
- which will create the file perlXYZ.sis (the XYZ being the Perl version)
- which you can then install into your Symbian device: an easy way
- to do this is to send them via Bluetooth or infrared and just open
- the messages.
- Since the total size of all Perl SIS files once installed is
- over 2 MB, it is recommended to do the installation into a
- memory card (drive E:) instead of the C: drive.
- The size of the perlXYZ.SIS is about 370 kB but once it is in the
- device it is about one 750 kB (according to the application manager).
- The perlXYZ.sis includes only the Perl DLL: to create an additional
- SIS file which includes some of the standard (pure) Perl libraries,
- issue the command
- make perllib.sis
- Some of the standard Perl libraries are included, but not all:
- see L</HISTORY> or F<symbian\install.cfg> for more details
- (250 kB -> 700 kB).
- Some of the standard Perl XS extensions (see L</HISTORY> are
- also available:
- make perlext.sis
- which will create perlXYZext.sis (290 kB -> 770 kB).
- To compile the demonstration application PerlApp you need first to
- install the Perl headers under the SDK.
- To install the Perl headers and the class CPerlBase documentation
- so that you no more need the Perl sources around to compile Perl
- applications using the SDK:
- make sdkinstall
- The destination directory is C:\Symbian\perl\X.Y.Z. For more
- details, see F<symbian\PerlBase.pod>.
- Once the headers have been installed, you can create a SIS for
- the PerlApp:
- make perlapp.sis
- The perlapp.sis (11 kB -> 16 kB) will be built in the symbian
- subdirectory, but a copy will also be made to the main directory.
- If you want to package the Perl DLLs (one for WINS, one for ARMI),
- the headers, and the documentation:
- make perlsdk.zip
- which will create perlXYZsdk.zip that can be used in another
- Windows system with the SDK, without having to compile Perl in
- that system.
- If you want to package the PerlApp sources:
- make perlapp.zip
- If you want to package the perl.exe and miniperl.exe, you
- can use the perlexe.sis and miniperlexe.sis make targets.
- You also probably want the perllib.sis for the libraries
- and maybe even the perlapp.sis for the recognizer.
- The make target 'allsis' combines all the above SIS targets.
- To clean up after compilation you can use either of
- make clean
- make distclean
- depending on how clean you want to be.
Compilation problemsIf you see right after "make" this - cat makefile.sh >makefile
- 'cat' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
- operable program or batch file.
it means you need to (re)run the symbian\config.pl. If you get the error - 'perl' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
- operable program or batch file.
you may need to reinstall the ActivePerl. If you see this - ren makedef.pl nomakedef.pl
- The system cannot find the file specified.
- C:\Symbian\...\make.exe: [rename_makedef] Error 1 (ignored)
please ignore it since it is nothing serious (the build process ofrenames the Perl makedef.pl as nomakedef.pl to avoid confusing itwith a makedef.pl of the SDK). PerlAppThe PerlApp application demonstrates how to embed Perl interpretersto a Symbian application. The "Time" menu item runs the followingPerl code: print "Running in ", $^O, "\n", scalar localtime ,the "Oneliner" allows one to type in Perl code, and the "Run"opens a file chooser for selecting a Perl file to run. The PerlApp also is started when the "Perl recognizer" (also includedand installed) detects a Perl file being activated through the GUI,and offers either to install it under \Perl (if the Perl file is inthe inbox of the messaging application) or to run it (if the Perl fileis under \Perl). sisify.plIn the symbian subdirectory there is sisify.pl utility which can be usedto package Perl scripts and/or Perl library directories into SIS files,which can be installed to the device. To run the sisify.pl utility,you will need to have the 'makesis' and 'uidcrc' utilities alreadyinstalled. If you don't have the Win32 SDKs, you may try for examplehttp://gnupoc.sourceforge.net/ or http://symbianos.org/~andreh/. Using Perl in SymbianFirst of all note that you have full access to the Symbian devicewhen using Perl: you can do a lot of damage to your device (likeremoving system files) unless you are careful. Please do takebackups before doing anything. The Perl port has been done for the most part using the Symbianstandard POSIX-ish STDLIB library. It is a reasonably completelibrary, but certain corners of such emulation libraries that tendto be left unimplemented on non-UNIX platforms have been leftunimplemented also this time: fork(), signals(), user/group ids,select() working for sockets, non-blocking sockets, and so forth.See the file symbian/config.sh and look for 'undef' to find theunsupported APIs (or from Perl use Config). The filesystem of Symbian devices uses DOSish syntax, "drives"separated from paths by a colon, and backslashes for the path. Theexact assignment of the drives probably varies between platforms, butfor example in Series 60 you might see C: as the (flash) main memory,D: as the RAM drive, E: as the memory card (MMC), Z: as the ROM. InSeries 80 D: is the memory card. As far the devices go the NUL: isthe bit bucket, the COMx: are the serial lines, IRCOMx: are the IRports, TMP: might be C:\System\Temp. Remember to double thosebackslashes in doublequoted strings. The Perl DLL is installed in \System\Libs\. The Perl libraries andextension DLLs are installed in \System\Libs\Perl\X.Y.Z\. The PerlAppis installed in \System\Apps\, and the SIS also installs a couple ofdemo scripts in \Perl\ (C:\Mydocs\Perl\ on Nokia 7710). Note that the Symbian filesystem is very picky: it strongly prefersthe \ instead of the /. When doing XS / Symbian C++ programming include first the Symbianheaders, then any standard C/POSIX headers, then Perl headers, and finallyany application headers. New() and Copy() are unfortunately used by both Symbian and Perl codeso you'll have to play cpp games if you need them. PerlBase.h undefinesthe Perl definitions and redefines them as PerlNew() and PerlCopy(). TO DOLots. See symbian/TODO. WARNINGAs of Perl Symbian port version 0.4.1 any part of Perl's standardregression test suite has not been run on a real Symbian device usingthe ported Perl, so innumerable bugs may lie in wait. Therefore thereis absolutely no warranty. NOTEWhen creating and extending application programming interfaces (APIs)for Symbian or Series 60 or Series 80 or Series 90 it is suggestedthat trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names are not used inthe API names. Instead, developers should consider basing the APInaming in the existing (C++, or maybe Java) public component and APInaming, modified as appropriate by the rules of the programminglanguage the new APIs are for. Nokia is a registered trademark of Nokia Corporation. Nokia's productnames are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nokia. Other productand company names mentioned herein may be trademarks or trade names oftheir respective owners. AUTHORJarkko Hietaniemi COPYRIGHTCopyright (c) 2004-2005 Nokia. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2006-2007 Jarkko Hietaniemi. LICENSEThe Symbian port is licensed under the same terms as Perl itself. HISTORY0.1.0: April 2005 (This will show as "0.01" in the Symbian Installer.) - - The console window is a very simple console indeed: one can
- get the newline with "000" and the "C" button is a backspace.
- Do not expect a terminal capable of vt100 or ANSI sequences.
- The console is also "ASCII", you cannot input e.g. any accented
- letters. Because of obvious physical constraints the console is
- also very small: (in Nokia 6600) 22 columns, 17 rows.
- - The following libraries are available:
- AnyDBM_File AutoLoader base Carp Config Cwd constant
- DynaLoader Exporter File::Spec integer lib strict Symbol
- vars warnings XSLoader
- - The following extensions are available:
- attributes Compress::Zlib Cwd Data::Dumper Devel::Peek Digest::MD5 DynaLoader
- Fcntl File::Glob Filter::Util::Call IO List::Util MIME::Base64
- PerlIO::scalar PerlIO::via SDBM_File Socket Storable Time::HiRes
- - The following extensions are missing for various technical reasons:
- B ByteLoader Devel::DProf Devel::PPPort Encode GDBM_File
- I18N::Langinfo IPC::SysV NDBM_File Opcode PerlIO::encoding POSIX
- re Safe Sys::Hostname Sys::Syslog
- threads threads::shared Unicode::Normalize
- - Using MakeMaker or the Module::* to build and install modules
- is not supported.
- - Building XS other than the ones in the core is not supported.
Since this is 0.something release, any future releases are almostguaranteed to be binary incompatible. As a sign of this the Symbiansymbol exports are kept unfrozen and the .def files fully rebuiltevery time. 0.2.0: October 2005 - - Perl 5.9.3 (patch level 25741)
- - Compress::Zlib and IO::Zlib supported
- - sisify.pl added
We maintain the binary incompatibility. 0.3.0: October 2005 - - Perl 5.9.3 (patch level 25911)
- - Series 80 2.0 and UIQ 2.1 support
We maintain the binary incompatibility. 0.4.0: November 2005 - - Perl 5.9.3 (patch level 26052)
- - adding a sample Symbian extension
We maintain the binary incompatibility. 0.4.1: December 2006 - - Perl 5.9.5-to-be (patch level 30002)
- - added extensions: Compress/Raw/Zlib, Digest/SHA,
- Hash/Util, Math/BigInt/FastCalc, Text/Soundex, Time/Piece
- - port to S90 1.1 by alexander smishlajev
We maintain the binary incompatibility. 0.4.2: March 2007 - - catchup with Perl 5.9.5-to-be (patch level 30812)
- - tested to build with Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
- (which uses Microsoft Visual C 8, instead of the old VC6),
- SDK used for testing S60_2nd_FP3 aka 8.1a
We maintain the binary incompatibility. |