in reply to HWXperl - The place for GUI apps in Perl

Where can I find discussions on the design of this thing?

Why did you decide to limit this to perl5.8?

Why'd you decide you had to mess with toke.c ? ( sounds dangerous, especially just for dot syntaxt... )

Does it break perl as we have come to know it? (i cannot imagine how it could not ).

Have you added any tests to the distribution?

Do you still use Mattia's wxPerl stuff, or do you define your own bindings? (how dependent is HWX really on your custom perl binary , and should it be?)

Have you had any thoughts about abstracting PerlBin (real cool) away from HWXPerl, so it can work with many perl versions?

Does it work on different platforms other than win32?

I modified hello.pl to use some modules, and I created the binary without issues. Adding a 'lib' with those modules to where my hello.exe was worked like a charm. I gotta say I'm real interested in this PerlBin thing.

In fact I was so interested in this idea (an open source alternative to perl2exe or PerlApp), that one night after some cb banter The Perl Compiler (turning perl scripts into binary executables) and created http://perlcompiler.sf.net. The project kind of died, since the one person who knew enough c/c++ and perl internals to get us started got stuck behind a NDA (non-disclosure agreement), but it'd be hella cool to resurrect it.

I'm doing the CVS dance as we speak.

How difficult would it be to make PerlBin work on earlier versions of perl (reading the description, I imagine it wouldn't be too much work)?

The demo did look impressive, and PerlBin especially, but I can't get over modifying toke.c for the dot syntaxt ... ;)

nice job ++

update: I know it's alpha stage, but documentation could use improvement, at least in aiding developers (like project direction and such), and we could probably do better than "*** empty log message ***" for the cvs commits.

update: Here goess a diff, if anyone qualified can comment: 

--- toke.c      2002-09-04 10:16:22.000000000 -0700
+++ toke.c.org  2002-09-04 10:16:22.000000000 -0700
@@ -4,17 +4,7 @@
  *
  *    You may distribute under the terms of either the GNU General Pu
+blic
  *    License or the Artistic License, as specified in the README fil
+e.
- *
- *    Modified by:  Graciliano M. P. (gm@virtuasites.com.br)
- *    Change date:  28/08/2002
- *    Changes:      Added dot (.) class call: foo.bar() or foo.bar
- *                  When you call 'foo.bar()' the interpreter transla
+te
- *                  to 'main::foo::bar()'. Can't use &foo.bar, is the
+ same
- *                  as: &foo . "bar"
  *
- *    Lexer:        When the lexer find 'foo.bar' in the source it tr
+anslate to
- *                  '_CORE_::foo_0__0_bar' and the package Class/DotR
+ef.pm do
- *                  the rest using AUTOLOAD.
  */

 /*
@@ -3875,16 +3865,12 @@
          just_a_word: {
                SV *sv;
                int pkgname = 0;
-               int pkgdot = 0;
-        int pkgI , pkgJ , strSize ;
-        char *str_tmp ;
                char lastchar = (PL_bufptr == PL_oldoldbufptr ? 0 : PL
+_bufptr[-1]);

                /* Get the rest if it looks like a package qualifier *
+/

-               if (*s == '\'' || *s == '.' || (*s == ':' && s[1] == '
+:')) {
+               if (*s == '\'' || (*s == ':' && s[1] == ':')) {
                    STRLEN morelen;
-            if (*s == '.') { pkgdot = 1;}
                    s = scan_word(s, PL_tokenbuf + len, sizeof PL_toke
+nbuf - len,
                                  TRUE, &morelen);
                    if (!morelen)
@@ -3921,30 +3907,6 @@
                    gvp = 0;
                }
                else {
-            if ( pkgdot ) {
-              str_tmp = malloc(sizeof(char) * (strlen(PL_tokenbuf)*3)
++6 ) ;
-              pkgJ = 0 ;
-              for (pkgI = 0; pkgI < len ; pkgI++) {
-                if ( PL_tokenbuf[pkgI] == ':' ) {
-                  str_tmp[pkgJ] = '_' ; pkgJ++ ;
-                  str_tmp[pkgJ] = '0' ; pkgJ++ ;
-                  str_tmp[pkgJ] = '_' ; pkgJ++ ;
-                }
-                else { str_tmp[pkgJ] = PL_tokenbuf[pkgI] ; pkgJ++ ;}
-              }
-
-              if ( *s != '(' ) {
-                str_tmp[pkgJ] = '_' ; pkgJ++ ;
-                str_tmp[pkgJ] = '0' ; pkgJ++ ;
-                str_tmp[pkgJ] = '_' ; pkgJ++ ;
-                str_tmp[pkgJ] = '_' ; pkgJ++ ;
-                str_tmp[pkgJ] = '0' ; pkgJ++ ;
-                str_tmp[pkgJ] = '_' ; pkgJ++ ;
-              }
-
-              str_tmp[pkgJ] = '\0' ;
-              sprintf(PL_tokenbuf,"_CORE_::%s",str_tmp);
-            }
                    len = 0;
                    if (!gv)
                        gv = gv_fetchpv(PL_tokenbuf, FALSE, SVt_PVCV);
@@ -4008,15 +3970,7 @@
                }

                PL_expect = XOPERATOR;
-               s = skipspace(s) ;
-
-        if ( pkgdot && *s != '(') {
-          s[-2] = '(' ;
-          s[-1] = ')' ;
-          s-=2 ;
-        }
-
-        pkgdot = 0 ;
+               s = skipspace(s);

                /* Is this a word before a => operator? */
                if (*s == '=' && s[1] == '>' && !pkgname) {
@@ -6133,7 +6087,7 @@
            Perl_croak(aTHX_ ident_too_long);
        if (isALNUM(*s))        /* UTF handled below */
            *d++ = *s++;
-       else if ( (*s == '\'' || *s == '.') && allow_package && isIDFI
+RST_lazy_if(s+1,UTF)) {
+       else if (*s == '\'' && allow_package && isIDFIRST_lazy_if(s+1,
+UTF)) {
            *d++ = ':';
            *d++ = ':';
            s++;

[download]
update: I d/led the source, and apparently there aren't any tests (not even the ones that come with perl). Not good (even though I did compile it successfully).

UPDATE: Ooooh, the binary thingamajigger doesn't look too complicated, Yay! (although only windoze seems to have runperl.c, which is the bulk of it ~ well on the C side ;)). Ooooh, gives me goosebumps -- excited;D!

--- miniperlmain.c      2002-09-22 05:31:56.000000000 -0700
+++ miniperlmain.c.org  2002-09-22 05:31:56.000000000 -0700

@@ -27,8 +25,6 @@
 #define PERL_IN_MINIPERLMAIN_C
 #include "perl.h"

-#include <string.h>
-
 static void xs_init (pTHX);
 static PerlInterpreter *my_perl;

@@ -42,52 +38,6 @@
 main(int argc, char **argv, char **env)
 {
     int exitstatus;
-    char  HWXmain[300] ;
-    char  HWXopt[] = "-e";
-    char  HWXsize[] = "##[HWXZ]##";
-    char  HWXsize2[] = "##[HWXS]##";
-    int   HWXrun=1 ;
-    char  *arg0=NULL ;
-    char  *arg1=NULL ;
-    int   n, i, j ;
-    char  HWXrunA[] = "my%HWX_BIN;eval{my%HWX=(z=>'" ;
-    char  HWXrunB[] = "',s=>'" ;
-    char  HWXrunC[] = "',x=>$^X);if((!-s$HWX{x})||-d$HWX{x}){if($^O=~
+/(msw|win|dos)/i){$HWX{x}.='.exe'}}open(HWX,$HWX{x
});binmode(HWX);seek(HWX,$HWX{z},0);read(HWX,$_,$HWX{s});close(HWX);%H
+WX_BIN=%HWX};eval($_);if($@){print STDERR$@}" ;
-
-    arg1 = malloc(sizeof(char) * strlen(HWXsize) + 1) ;
-    strcpy (arg1, HWXsize);
-    if ( arg1[0] == '#' ) { HWXrun = 0 ;}
-
-    if (argc > 1 && HWXrun == 1) {
-       arg1 = malloc(sizeof(char) * strlen(argv[1]) + 1) ;
-       strcpy (arg1, argv[1]);
-       if ( arg1[0] == '-' && arg1[1] != '-' ) { HWXrun = 0 ;}
-    }
-
-    if ( HWXrun == 1 ) {
-      sprintf(HWXmain,"%s%s%s%s%s\0",HWXrunA,HWXsize,HWXrunB,HWXsize2
+,HWXrunC);
-
-      arg0 = malloc(sizeof(char) * strlen(argv[0]) + 1) ;
-      strcpy (arg0, argv[0]);
-
-      n = argc ;
-      argc = argc + 2 ;
-      i = n - 1 ;
-      j = 1 ;
-
-      while (i > 0) {
-        j = i + 2 ;
-        argv[j] = argv[i] ;
-        i-- ;
-      }
-
-      argv[0] = arg0 ;
-      argv[1] = HWXopt ;
-      argv[2] = HWXmain ;
-
-      //fprintf(stdout,">> %s\n",HWXmain);
-    }
-

 #ifdef PERL_GLOBAL_STRUCT
 #define PERLVAR(var,type) /**/


--- runperl.c   2002-09-22 05:32:01.000000000 -0700
+++ runperl.c.orig      2002-09-22 05:32:01.000000000 -0700
 #include "EXTERN.h"
 #include "perl.h"

-#include <string.h>
-
 #ifdef __GNUC__

 /* Mingw32 defaults to globing command line
@@ -27,52 +15,6 @@
 int
 main(int argc, char **argv, char **env)
 {
-    char  HWXmain[300] ;
-    char  HWXopt[] = "-e";
-    char  HWXsize[] = "##[HWXZ]##";
-    char  HWXsize2[] = "##[HWXS]##";
-    int   HWXrun=1 ;
-    char  *arg0=NULL ;
-    char  *arg1=NULL ;
-    int   n, i, j ;
-    char  HWXrunA[] = "my%HWX_BIN;eval{my%HWX=(z=>'" ;
-    char  HWXrunB[] = "',s=>'" ;
-    char  HWXrunC[] = "',x=>$^X);if((!-s$HWX{x})||-d$HWX{x}){if($^O=~
+/(msw|win|dos)/i){$HWX{x}.='.exe'}}open(HWX,$HWX{x
});binmode(HWX);seek(HWX,$HWX{z},0);read(HWX,$_,$HWX{s});close(HWX);%H
+WX_BIN=%HWX};eval($_);if($@){print STDERR$@}" ;
-
-    arg1 = malloc(sizeof(char) * strlen(HWXsize) + 1) ;
-    strcpy (arg1, HWXsize);
-    if ( arg1[0] == '#' ) { HWXrun = 0 ;}
-
-    if (argc > 1 && HWXrun == 1) {
-       arg1 = malloc(sizeof(char) * strlen(argv[1]) + 1) ;
-       strcpy (arg1, argv[1]);
-       if ( arg1[0] == '-' && arg1[1] != '-' ) { HWXrun = 0 ;}
-    }
-
-    if ( HWXrun == 1 ) {
-      sprintf(HWXmain,"%s%s%s%s%s\0",HWXrunA,HWXsize,HWXrunB,HWXsize2
+,HWXrunC);
-
-      arg0 = malloc(sizeof(char) * strlen(argv[0]) + 1) ;
-      strcpy (arg0, argv[0]);
-
-      n = argc ;
-      argc = argc + 2 ;
-      i = n - 1 ;
-      j = 1 ;
-
-      while (i > 0) {
-        j = i + 2 ;
-        argv[j] = argv[i] ;
-        i-- ;
-      }
-
-      argv[0] = arg0 ;
-      argv[1] = HWXopt ;
-      argv[2] = HWXmain ;
-
-      //fprintf(stdout,">> %s\n",HWXmain);
-    }
-
     return RunPerl(argc, argv, env);
 }

[download]

____________________________________________________
** The Third rule of perl club is a statement of fact: pod is sexy.

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: (more questions) Re: HWXperl - The place for GUI apps in Perl
by gmpassos (Priest) on Sep 22, 2002 at 13:45 UTC
    > Where can I find discussions on the design of this thing?
    In mailing list of the project on SF: http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=55705

    > Why did you decide to limit this to perl5.8?
    Well, since HWX doesn't use a normal Perl, not only a Perl with some extra modules, it use the Perl that we release. We got Perl 5.8.0 to use the last resources, specially Threads! I don't see why spend time making the interpreter with earlier version! We don't have much peoples working on that yet, we need to do the priority things first!

    > Why'd you decide you had to mess with toke.c ?
    I already answer that. To enable DotRef in the native level of the syntax, this means make it works in any part of Perl, including eval() and in the check syntax of the code. Filter::Simple, the other way to do that, doesn't have all the resources that I want for DotRef, specially the use inside eval()! Well, if it doesn't do what I want, I made my own.

    > Does it break perl as we have come to know it? (i cannot imagine how it could not ).
    NO! All the normal syntax was ok. DotRef first look if the class exist, if not it return a normal concatenation. But if you stop one minut you will see that no one will write:
    obj.aaa.bbb.ccc
    because this is the same of: objaaabbbccc
    DotRef, only accept \w and no space between the dots.

    > Have you added any tests to the distribution?
    Not yet. The GUI things will be hard to make a good test, and the DotRef was ok.

    > Do you still use Mattia's wxPerl stuff, or do you define your own bindings?
    Yes, is the same wxPerl, but is my own compilation. The only thing that I have added to wxPerl is the Wx::ActiveX and Wx::ActiveX::IE modules tha I made, and wasn't in the standart wxPerl yet.

    >(how dependent is HWX really on your custom perl binary , and should it be?)
    Well, it uses Class::DotRef. But inside the HWX and GML I tried to not use it to enbale it in other Perl versions, if in the future someone want it. About the "custom perl binary", the custome thing is for the PerlBin, and PerlBin is a tool to publish your app, not to run.

    >Have you had any thoughts about abstracting PerlBin (real cool) away from HWXPerl, so it can work with many perl versions?
    If you take a look in the changes that I made in the source of Perl binarys, you will see that it will works in any OS, since was simple things with the use of basic resources of C. All the other things are made with Perl codes, you can see a small script inside the source, to make it portable and simple.

    > Does it work on different platforms other than win32?
    Yes, I think that it works in any, you just need to compile it and make the same changes in the source for each OS inside Perl-src.

    >I modified hello.pl to use some modules, and I created the binary without issues. Adding a 'lib' with those modules to where my hello.exe was worked like a charm. I gotta say I'm real interested in this PerlBin thing.
    Well, is soo simple! I say again, if it doesn't do what I want I make my own. :-P

    >In fact I was so interested in this idea (an open source alternative to perl2exe or PerlApp), that one night after some cb banter The Perl Compiler (turning perl scripts into binary executables) and created http://perlcompiler.sf.net. The project kind of died, since the one person who knew enough c/c++ and perl internals to get us started got stuck behind a NDA (non-disclosure agreement), but it'd be hella cool to resurrect it.
    Well, I think that the best way is to do some scrirpt or program that get the standart source of Perl, make the changes. And the user just compile and use Perl normally, and when it want to "compile" use something like PerlBin. In the project you can release the binarys for diffenrent OS too. I hate perl2exe and PerlApp, they are selling something soo simple to do! About PerlBin, when some other priority things was made, I will link it with Zlib, to compress your script and your lib inside the binary. Talk with Marcus, one of the other developers of HWX, it was very interested on this too. You can find the e-mail in the file Changes.HWX in the CVS.

    > How difficult would it be to make PerlBin work on earlier versions of perl (reading the description, I imagine it wouldn't be too much work)?
    I think that will be just copy and paste!

    >nice job ++
    Thanks. ;-)
    Hey, join to the HWX team, or just sign the mailing list for news.

    Graciliano M. P.
    "The creativity is the expression of the liberty".

[reply]

In Section Perl News