Sorry I can't help more. I grabbed Math::GMP and whilst it built fine, but craps out very early in make test with "The procedure entrypoint __gmpz_sqrt could not be located in the DLL gmp.dll". There seems to be a fundemental conflict between an XS extension to call functions in a file called gmp.dll, itself being called gmp.dll.

(As an aside, why do so few of these modules that have dependancies on third party libraries never bother to give pointers to where to get them, or even mention the dependancy, in the POD?)

Sorry I can't help more

That's ok - you've alrready gone to more trouble than is warranted.

There seems to be a fundemental conflict between an XS extension to call functions in a file called gmp.dll, itself being called gmp.dll

Yes (on Win32 anyway), the dll that perl builds needs to have a different name to the the third party dll. I struck a similar problem trying to build PGPLOT. One workaround is to have perl build a dll with a different extension by specifying in WriteMakefile() something like:

    DLEXT => 'xs.dll',
[download]

The bootstrap() call in GMP.pm then also needs to be changed:

if($^O =~ /mswin32/i) {
  local $DynaLoader::dl_dlext = 'xs.dll';
  bootstrap Math::GMP $VERSION;
  }

else {bootstrap Math::GMP $VERSION}
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That should result in perl building a dll called gmp.xs.dll - which won't get confused with the gmp.dll that you already have.

.. why do so few of these modules that have dependancies on third party libraries never bother to give pointers to where to get them, or even mention the dependancy

Good question - and I can't really answer for Math::GMP. In my view, that info should be provided in the README - and I have GMP-based modules that do that. I guess it wouldn't hurt to duplicate that info in the POD - which I will do.

Cheers,
Rob

Bah, fooey! One day, someone is going to realise that this build system is ...

c:\Perl\packages\Math-GMP-2.04>nmake

Microsoft (R) Program Maintenance Utility Version 7.00.9466
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

        cl -c    -nologo -Gf -W3 -MD -Zi -DNDEBUG -O1 -DWIN32 -D_CONSO
+LE -DNO_STRICT -DHAVE_DES_FCRYPT -DNO_HASH_SEED -DPERL_IMPLICIT_CONTE
+XT -DPERL_IMPLICIT_SYS -DUSE_PERLIO -DPERL_MSVCRT_READFIX -MD -Zi -DN
+DEBUG -O1    -DV
cl : Command line warning D4029 : optimization is not available in the
+ standard edition compiler
GMP.c
Running Mkbootstrap for Math::GMP ()
        C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe -MExtUtils::Command -e chmod 644 GMP.bs
        C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe -MExtUtils::Mksymlists  -e "Mksymlists('N
+AME'=>\"Math::GMP\", 'DLBASE' => 'GMP', 'DL_FUNCS' => {  }, 'FUNCLIST
+' => [], 'IMPORTS' => {  }, 'DL_VARS' => []);"
        link -out:blib\arch\auto\Math\GMP\GMP.xs.dll -dll -nologo -nod
+efaultlib -debug -opt:ref,icf  -libpath:"C:\Perl\lib\CORE"  -machine:
+x86 GMP.obj   C:\Perl\lib\CORE\perl58.lib gmp.lib c:\cl\lib\oldnames.
+lib c:\cl\lib\ke
   Creating library blib\arch\auto\Math\GMP\GMP.xs.lib and object blib
+\arch\auto\Math\GMP\GMP.xs.exp
GMP.xs.exp : warning LNK4070: /OUT:GMP.dll directive in .EXP differs f
+rom output filename 'blib\arch\auto\Math\GMP\GMP.xs.dll'; ignoring di
+rective
        C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe -MExtUtils::Command -e chmod 755 blib\arc
+h\auto\Math\GMP\GMP.xs.dll
        C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe -MExtUtils::Command -e cp GMP.bs blib\arc
+h\auto\Math\GMP\GMP.bs
        C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe -MExtUtils::Command -e chmod 644 blib\arc
+h\auto\Math\GMP\GMP.bs

c:\Perl\packages\Math-GMP-2.04>nmake test

Microsoft (R) Program Maintenance Utility Version 7.00.9466
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

        C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe "-MExtUtils::Command::MM" "-e" "test_harn
+ess(0, 'blib\lib', 'blib\arch')" t\gmppm.t
t\gmppm....Can't load 'C:\Perl\packages\Math-GMP-2.04\blib\arch/auto/M
+ath/GMP/GMP.xs.dll' for module Math::GMP: load_file:The specified pro
+cedure could not be found at C:/Perl/lib/DynaLoader.pm line 230.
 at t\gmppm.t line 7
Compilation failed in require at t\gmppm.t line 7.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at t\gmppm.t line 7.
t\gmppm....dubious
        Test returned status 255 (wstat 65280, 0xff00)
FAILED--1 test script could be run, alas--no output ever seen
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: 'C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe' : return code '0x2'
Stop.
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