NAME

MacPerl Readme

SYNOPSIS

Welcome to MacPerl, the application that implements perl, the programming language and environment, on Mac OS (Classic). If you are running perl under Mac OS X, you don't want to be here (unless you are in the Classic environment under Mac OS X).

DESCRIPTION

Please read the READMEs that come with MacPerl, but ignore the installation instructions presented in the main README; they do not apply to the Mac OS port of perl.

Read macperldelta for changes since MacPerl 5.2.0r4.

System Requirements

MacPerl 5.6 requires Mac OS 8.1 or above, either 68040 or PowerPC, and 12MB RAM. 64MB or more RAM is recommended for using certain modules and programs.

CarbonLib 1.0.4 or greater is also required. Mac OS 8.1 also requires the Navigation extension, included with CarbonLib 1.0.4. All versions of CarbonLib may be downloaded from Apple for free.

 <URL:ftp://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/
  English-North_American/Macintosh/System/Other_System/>
 <URL:http://www.info.apple.com/support/downloads.html>;

You may also wish to increase MacPerl's memory allocation to as much as 30MB, 60MB, or more, depending on what you're using it for.

For using just the MPW tool, Mac OS 7.5.5 and 68030 should be sufficient, though some of the Mac:: modules might not work.

Distribution

MacPerl can always be obtained from the following locations, among others:

        http://dev.macperl.org/
        http://www.cpan.org/ports/mac/
        ftp://ftp.cpan.org/pub/CPAN/ports/mac/

MacPerl is avaiable on all the CPAN sites. Find the CPAN mirror near you:

        http://mirror.cpan.org/

MacPerl is distributed in two forms: a web installer (about 400K) and a full installer (around 20MB). The web installer is recommended, as it only downloads the components you need.

   MacPerl-5.6.1r2_web.bin
   MacPerl-5.6.1r2_full.bin
           ^    ^^ ^    ^
           |    || |    MacBinary Suffix ("bin")
           |    || Distribution Component (web", "full")
           |    |Build Number ("1")
           |    Type ("d"evelopment, "a"lpha, "b"eta, "r"elease)
           Perl Version ("5.6.1")

Both the web and full installers are self-updating as new versions of MacPerl are released; they will fetch and install only changed files, so you don't need to download everything anew.

Note: Some beta versions of the full installer were not self-updating; please download a new installer.

Installing

MacPerl is installed by running the installer, selecting an option, and then setting up the Online Help as described below.

To install the MPW perl tool, additionally follow the instructions in Install.MPW_Perl.

The following installation options are available:

Easy Install / Basic Install
This installs the application (for your platform), the documentation, and the library. This will be the option for most users.

MPW Tool
This installs the MPW tool (for your platform), a command-line version of perl for use with ToolServer and Macintosh Programmer's Workshop. When selected, the documentation and library will be selected as well, by default.

Developer Kit
This installs all the source, and the SYM files for debugging. Most users will not want or need these files.

Online Help

There are two portions to the MacPerl documentation. The first is this README, along with the rest of the READMEs, licenses, and manuals in the MacPerl Documentation directory.

The other is the considerable amount of POD-based online help that comes with Perl. For this help to work, make sure you have:

Once it is set up, open Shuck and look under the ``Go'' menu, or MacPerl under the ``Help'' menu, and select various documentation pages (including Various->macperlbook for information on the MacPerl book).

To look up information on specific words in Shuck, select Go->LookupÉ. In MacPerl, highlight a word and select Help->Perl Help or double-click it.

Mac::Glue

the Mac::Glue manpage is a special framework for using Apple events with an AppleScript vocabulary, but Perl syntax. Run the gluedialect and gluescriptadds droplets, drop any application (including the Finder) that you wish to be able to script onto gluemac, and read the the Mac::Glue manpage documentation.

Mailing list

There are several MacPerl mailing lists covering various aspects of MacPerl. See the Perl mailing lists site for more information.

        http://lists.perl.org/

Building

The perl 5.6.1 source itself builds on Mac OS, with some additional pieces. Support for Mac OS is now in the perl core, and MacPerl is kept in close sync with regular perl releases.

You will need compilers and libraries, all of them freely available. These are linked to from the development site at http://dev.macperl.org/. Go to that site for all things having to do with MacPerl development.

CONTACT

Please send your bug reports, patches, and feature requests for MacPerl to the MacPerl development site at http://dev.macperl.org/. Also head over there for the latest source and links to other sites.

CREDITS

Perl was ported to Mac OS by Matthias Neeracher <neeracher@mac.com>. The port is maintained by Chris Nandor <pudge@pobox.com>.

Much of MacPerl is made possible via GUSI, the POSIX library for Mac OS, also by Matthias Neeracher.

        http://sf.net/projects/gusi/

Shuck is written by Matthias Neeracher, and is maintained by Thomas Wegner <wegner_thomas@yahoo.com>.

        http://sf.net/projects/shuck/

The installer for MacPerl was created using Installer VISE from MindVision Software. For more information on Installer VISE, contact:

        MindVision Software 
        5901 North 58th Street 
        Lincoln, NE 68507
        Voice: (402) 323-6600
        Fax: (402) 323-6611
        E-mail: mindvision@mindvision.com 
        http://www.mindvision.com

The MacPerl application uses Mercutio MDEF, Copyright 1992-1998 by Ramon M. Felciano.

DATE

Last modified 2002.12.02.