http://qs1969.pair.com?node_id=539532

All,
This isn't extremely new news as build 815 has been out since 2005-11-02. Apparently, this was possible even prior to 815 using some configuration trickery.

* On Windows ActivePerl will automatically use MinGW to compile modules if Microsoft VC++ is not installed, but MinGW and dmake are.

"Starting with ActivePerl 5.8.7.815 you can also use MinGW to compile additional modules that will use MSVCRT.DLL for the C runtime. ActivePerl will automatically detect and use MinGW and dmake if you have them installed but don't have VC++ on your PATH."

For MinGW it's just a matter of installing MinGW and dmake. I think it's pretty well covered in Readme.win32 in the perl source - not that there's much to cover, as it's all quite straightforward now.

Cheers - L~R

  • Comment on ActiveState Perl supports MinGW compiled modules

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Re: ActiveState Perl supports MinGW compiled modules
by bart (Canon) on Mar 27, 2006 at 22:21 UTC
    I didn't understand the preoccupation with dmake, so I ignored that requirement... I already had MinGW and Microsoft's nmake installed, so I just downloaded and installed the new Activeperl 5.8.8.816, as my previous install was 5.8.7.813, slightly too old...

    I ran a few test builds of XS modules (Sub::Name, Data::Dump::Streamer). Guess what: it works. You don't need dmake, nmake will do fine.

    An exception is Win32::API, but we knew that already, it uses MSVC inline assembler syntax and MinGW's gcc can't handle that.

Re: ActiveState Perl supports MinGW compiled modules
by CountZero (Bishop) on Mar 28, 2006 at 22:02 UTC
    Very good news!

    As a compiler-challenged user of Windows XP, I felt left out every time a module needed to be compiled and no PPM-package was available.

    I installed the minimal shell "MSys" and from that shell ran the CPAN-module and it works like a charm.

    Giant vistas open on the horizon. What shall we do next? Recompile Perl itself?

    CountZero

    "If you have four groups working on a compiler, you'll get a 4-pass compiler." - Conway's Law

      What shall we do next? Recompile Perl itself?

      Yes. While it's still very alpha, see VanillaPerl.

      -xdg

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