bulrush has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I have Perl 5.6.0 (Activestate) running on WinXP (DOS box). When I run ppm.bat, I get an error "Failed to load PPM_DAT file. Can't use an undefined value as a SCALAR reference at c:\perl560\site\lib\PPM.pm line 1586, <DATA> line 36."

I assume this is the Perl Package Manager. I just want to add ReadKey to my perl so I can use Games::Roguelike::Console.

Thank you.

Chuck

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: PPM error, missing PPM_DAT
by mr_mischief (Monsignor) on Apr 08, 2009 at 19:17 UTC
    That's a pretty old version of Perl anyway. You may want to consider updating to 5.8.8 or 5.10.0 as an option.

    The newer versions of the ActiveState distribution should have a working PPM system.

    There's also Strawberry Perl to consider, which can build and install many (but not all) CPAN modules including those requiring a C compiler.

    Either one should work for you. Some prefer Strawberry and some prefer ActiveState. There are even more options for Perl on Windows. I'd stick to one of the two already mentioned, though, unless you're using a full Unix compatibility environment on top of Windows (like CygWin or Interix).

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Re: PPM error, missing PPM_DAT
by VinsWorldcom (Prior) on Apr 08, 2009 at 19:48 UTC

    I'll second mr_mischief and recommend an upgrade. I'm on ActiveState 5.8.8 and have been for QUITE some time now. No issues and all my old Perl scripts work fine including the modules they use. I'll eventually get to 5.10, but everythings fine where I'm at.

    I've never used Strawberry Perl - in fact, never heard of it until I joined this site.

    PPM now has a nice GUI, not particularly great, but easy to use nonetheless. You can also download modules direct from http://ppm.activestate.com/PPMPackages/zips/.

    UPDATE: With ActiveState 5.8.8, just run ppm from the command line, no arguments and you'll get the GUI:

    {C} > ppm

    [download]
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[d/l]
      Can I use the nice PPM gui with 5.6.0? Or must I upgrade to Activestate 5.8.8?
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        Can I use the nice PPM gui with 5.6.0?

        Dunno, never tried. But then, I seriously doubt that any one has tried it, which might give you a clue as to the answer to your second question. Why would you want to stick with a 8+ year old version anyway?

        Your other problem would be how to get a copy of the gui ppm.

        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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