in reply to Re^3: Perl for Windows ?
in thread Perl for Windows ?

If one #define was changed to allow all the functions in perl5x.dll to be exported, another huge swath of failures would disappear

This, I expect, alludes to (eg) your attempts to build Data::Alias as discussed in From whence comes perl-5.8.6-smartmatch.tar?.

Is it really just a matter of changing one #define ? If so, which one ? - and what's the change ? It could be interesting to build perl with that one define changed appropriately - and then see what happens as a result of that change. (Did we ever determine the reason that not all functions are exported ?)

Cheers,
Rob

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Re^5: Perl for Windows ?
by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Mar 02, 2008 at 10:20 UTC
    (Did we ever determine the reason that not all functions are exported ?)

    I think you pretty much answered that question when you quoted Jan Dubois. Which you might summarise as "because they can" on some platforms.

    Try editing perl.h line ~3943 (5.8.8 build) 

    #  define PERL_CALLCONV __declspec(dllexport)

    [download]

    Without the above edit, perl58.dll from the AS817/5.8.8 distribution: 

    C:\test>pushd \AS817\perl\bin

C:\AS817\perl\bin>dumpbin /exports perl58.dll | wc -l
   1457

C:\AS817\perl\bin>dumpbin /exports perl58.dll | find "av_reify"

C:\AS817\perl\bin>

    [download]

    With the above change, perl58.dll(5.8.8): 

    c:\Perl\src\perl-5.8.8>dumpbin /exports perl58.dll | wc -l
   1995

c:\Perl\src\perl-5.8.8>dumpbin /exports perl58.dll | find "av_reify"
        627  272 00001000 Perl_av_reify

    [download]

    How many problems those extra 500 exports will fix I'm not sure, but I'm betting quite a few.

    Whether it will work with 5.10 I'll tell you in about 1/2 hour.

    Update: Seems to work similarly for 5.10 also: 

    [10:50:31.10]C:\Perl\src\perl-5.10.0>dumpbin /exports perl510.dll | wc
+ -l
   1993

[10:50:47.42]C:\Perl\src\perl-5.10.0>cd \Perl510\bin

[10:50:59.53]C:\Perl510\bin>dumpbin /exports perl510.dll | wc -l
   1387

    [download]

    And the (summary) output from nmake test looks 'normal': 

    Failed Test          Stat Wstat Total Fail  List of Failed
----------------------------------------------------------------------
+---------
../ext/IO/t/io_dup.t                6    4  2-5
../lib/lib.t            5  1280    13    0  ??
comp/multiline.t                    6    2  5-6
io/dup.t                           29    6  2-7
 (1 subtest UNEXPECTEDLY SUCCEEDED), 56 tests and 1083 subtests skippe
+d.
Failed 4/1470 test scripts. 12/189314 subtests failed.
Files=1470, Tests=189314, 1264 wallclock secs ( 0.00 cusr +  0.00 csys
+ =  0.00 CPU)
Failed 4/1470 test programs. 12/189314 subtests failed.
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: '..\perl.exe' : return code '0xff'
Stop.

    [download]

    Whether it will break anything anywhere, or is backwards compatible with 5.0 again I do not know.

    And where it leaves all the shenanigins played out by embed.pl & regen_lib.pl and all the work that goes into maintaining embed.fnc, pp.sym, intrpvar.h, perlvars.h and thrdvar.h is another open question.

    Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
    "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
    In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
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