in reply to Can't install CPAN modules on XP

On downloading modules for ActiveState Perl you have the easiest way to go with the PPM (Perl Package Manager), that comes with your default installation of ActivePerl just like cpan (UPDATED)...Using PPM is the most direct forward, however, there are times when automating modules installation and compilation is not possible due to factors like network restrictions or unavailability . So you gotta resort to manual downloading of the module and compiling it afterwards.

You'd require a make utility in your case in here and there are many flavors out there on the Windows side:

But before that do your homework and read through Installing Modules, this is one skill you'd much need down the line and you better sharpen it now before later.

After getting one of these utilities and figuring it out you can just download any zipped Perl module from the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, extract it to the Perl bin and run the make utility steps on it directly without having to invoke the shells for CPAN nor ppm neither.

Have a Happy Perl coding journey and welcome to the Monastery....

Excellence is an Endeavor of Persistence. A Year-Old Monk :D .

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: Can't install CPAN modules on XP
by marto (Cardinal) on Jul 01, 2010 at 14:57 UTC

    cpan also comes with the a default installation ActiveState perl.

[reply]
      Isn't that the cpan shell that I was trying to use in the first place? Anyway, PPM worked so I'm happy for the moment.
[reply]

        ActiveState Perl doesn't ship with a compiler and build tools (such as gcc and dmake). They are now part of the PPM repository, so calling the PPM command I previously described installs these for you, allowing you to compile your own modules from cpan.

[reply]
Re^2: Can't install CPAN modules on XP
by Anonymous Monk on Jul 01, 2010 at 17:38 UTC 
    ppm install dmake MinGW
ppm upgrade dmake MinGW

    [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
Re^2: Can't install CPAN modules on XP
by elef (Friar) on Jul 02, 2010 at 09:00 UTC
    Thank you for that detailed answer. For now, PPM (which I didn't know about before this thread) works fine.
[reply]
      If you ever had to add repositories for PPM to connect to and install packages from repositories other than the 'ActiveState Package Repository', check PPM performs uneeded checks for basic management of such connectivities.

      PPM can be invoked in two interfaces, the GUI one and the shell one, here are the commands 

      C:\> ppm-shell <----- The shell terminal
C:\> ppm       <----- The GUI Terminal

      [download]
      Knowing how to install modules through different ways via cpan, ppm or directly by unzipping packages to your bin directory is an essential capability you need to build on...

[reply]
[d/l]

In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom