ppm install http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/XML-LibXML.ppd
[download]

• Why the bespoke AS perl ? and...
• What's the basis for your aversion to C ?

Why not try Strawberry Perl(5.8.8 still available for download) - it comes bundled with GNU make and gcc and ... better still, allows you to use the standard CPAN based download &/or installation of modules (& their dependencies).

To my mind, that (Strawberry Perl) and gvim (not forgetting a live inter-web connection, for convenience:-) make the bes6t of bad job and present the best possible perl dev environment on Windoze

Installing libxml under Windows can be a nightmare, i.e. especially via ppm. I ran into trouble myself, see Re: use XML::LibXML; is causing compile error. I think under Windows it's best to build libxml yourself and not use the ppm packages. So you need a C compiler and you will also need nmake too.

... se Re: use XML::LibXML; is causing compile error

Yes, XML-LibXML has quite a few dependencies - anyone wanting to install the uwinnipeg ppm for perl-5.8 would be well advised to first add it to the list of repo's (unless it's already there):

ppm repo add http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/
[download]

Then it's just a matter of:

C:\_32>ppm install http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/XML-LibXML.ppd
Downloading XML-LibXML-1.64...done
Downloading XML-SAX-0.96...done
Downloading XML-NamespaceSupport-1.09...done
Downloading XML-LibXML-Common-0.13...done
Unpacking XML-LibXML-1.64...done
Unpacking XML-SAX-0.96...done
Unpacking XML-NamespaceSupport-1.09...done
Unpacking XML-LibXML-Common-0.13...done
Generating HTML for XML-LibXML-1.64...done
Generating HTML for XML-SAX-0.96...done
Generating HTML for XML-NamespaceSupport-1.09...done
Generating HTML for XML-LibXML-Common-0.13...done
Updating files in site area...done
Downloading XML-LibXML-Common-0.13 install script...done
Running XML-LibXML-Common-0.13 install script...Set up gcc environment
+ - 3.4.5
mingw-vista special r3)

The library libxml2.dll is needed to complete the installation,
and should be placed in a directory somewhere in your PATH
environment variable. I can fetch and install this for you,
if you don't already have it.

Fetch libxml2.dll? [yes]
Fetching http://theoryx5.uwinnipeg.ca/ppms/scripts/libxml2.dll ...  do
+ne!
Where should libxml2.dll be placed? [C:\_32\ap824\bin]
libxml2.dll has been successfully installed to C:/_32/ap824/bin
done
Downloading XML-LibXML-1.64 install script...done
Running XML-LibXML-1.64 install script...Set up gcc environment - 3.4.
+5 (mingw-
ista special r3)

Do you want to alter ParserDetails.ini? [yes]
C:\_32\ap824\bin\perl.exe -MXML::SAX -e "XML::SAX->add_parser(q(XML::L
+ibXML::SA
::Parser))->save_parsers()"
C:\_32\ap824\bin\perl.exe -MXML::SAX -e "XML::SAX->add_parser(q(XML::L
+ibXML::SA
))->save_parsers()"
done
 103 files installed

C:\_32>perl -le "use XML::LibXML; print $XML::LibXML::VERSION"
1.64
[download]

(Where prompted, I just accepted the default.)

Still no toFH via package XML::LibXML::Document but. (I checked.)

Cheers,
Rob

Couldn't make it work with ActiveState's ppm/binaries, submitted a bug, never heard anything since. In any case I had to switch to Linux for other stuff. So far so good:-)

Cheers,
Harry