Re: Re: compile perl to dos exe

no I actually mean DOS. it's for preOS imaging settings. The requirements are to be able to boot with minimal DOS which will create a network file share on a floppy. I'm supposed to create compiled perl script to do some configuration settings based on the workstation environment's MAC address and execute their unattended install script. I didn't think it was so had to get a .pl file compiled.. sheesh =)

Comment on Re: Re: compile perl to dos exe

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Re: Re: Re: compile perl to dos exe by iburrell (Chaplain) on Jan 16, 2004 at 23:14 UTC
Don't use Perl. Perl is not the best choice for all uses. Booting from a floppy and running in a limited environment is one of them. Perl is an interpreted language. Compiling it to binary code is hard. The perlcc is experimental. The perlcc docs says: "Use for production purposes is strongly discouraged." Some of the solutions suggested, like PAR and TinyPerl, package the interpreter and your script into an arhive which is unpacked at run-time. The Perl interpreter is big and you will have a hard time squeezing it down to fit on a floppy. Also, there may not be a place to unpack the archive. Also, there is a big difference between running Perl under Windows and DOS. There is a DOS port, but my impression was that it requires a 32-bit compiler and runtime environment. DJGPP is most often used. I bet you don't need an interpreted programming language for your application. Doing it in C would make the most sense and make it easy to fit on a single floppy.	[reply]

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Re: Re: Re: compile perl to dos exe
by iburrell (Chaplain) on Jan 16, 2004 at 23:14 UTC

Some of the solutions suggested, like PAR and TinyPerl, package the interpreter and your script into an arhive which is unpacked at run-time. The Perl interpreter is big and you will have a hard time squeezing it down to fit on a floppy. Also, there may not be a place to unpack the archive.

Also, there is a big difference between running Perl under Windows and DOS. There is a DOS port, but my impression was that it requires a 32-bit compiler and runtime environment. DJGPP is most often used.

I bet you don't need an interpreted programming language for your application. Doing it in C would make the most sense and make it easy to fit on a single floppy.

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