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

At this point I am extremely frustrated. You'd think that nobody had ever wanted to do this before.

Anyhow...

Can anyone help me get an example application that embeds a perl interpreter to build? It seems that all of the methods I've seen have some sort of fatal flaw. I have yet to get any of them to work. Can someone give me or point me to where I might be able to get an example .c file and Makefile that will build with VC++ 6.0 (nmake)?

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

-Matt

p.s. YES, I have tried to use the perlembed document example several times and different ways, so please don't suggest that. Thanks.


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Re: Embedding Perl on Windows
by ralphie (Friar) on Jun 03, 2001 at 00:55 UTC
    since you're in the windows environment, have you thought about building a com object with perlcom from the perl developer's kit from activestate?
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Re: Embedding Perl on Windows
by mlong (Sexton) on Jun 07, 2001 at 00:26 UTC
    Update:

    I did finally get this to work correctly. The interp.c application didn't work before because I chose the wrong project type. Here's what you do to build it in MS Visual C++ 6:

    (This is mostly taken from the perlembed document, but with slight modifications that helped me.)

    1. Run 'perl -MExtUtils::Embed -e xsinit' from the command line to generate the perlxsi.c file.

    2. Create a new "Win32 Console Application" project and name it interp. (If you select "Win32 Application", it won't build properly).

    3. Insert the following files into your project by selecting Projet -> Add To Project -> Files...:
      • perlxsi.c
      • perl56.lib (yes, actually insert it into the project)
      • interp.c (the first example app from perlembed)


      Typically you'll find perl.lib in C:\perl\lib\CORE, if not, you should see the CORE directory relative to perl -V:archlib.

      The studio will also need this path so it knows where to find Perl include files. This path can be added via the Tools -> Options -> Directories tab.

    4. Finally, select Build -> Build interp.exe and you're ready to go.

    The problems I originally ran into here were apparently just environment related. I am not a VC++ expert, so it took me a bit to figure it out. I was also able to build a Win32 Windows executable that works. Here's the steps involved to do that:

    1. Run 'perl -MExtUtils::Embed -e xsinit' from the command line to generate the perlxsi.c file.

    2. Rename perlxsi.c to perlxsi.cpp

    3. Create a new "MFC AppWizard (exe)" project and name it perldlg. Select "Dialog Based Application" and Finish.

    4. Copy perlxsi.cpp to your main project directory

    5. Insert the following files into your project by selecting Projet -> Add To Project -> Files...:
      • perlxsi.cpp
      • perl56.lib


    6. Place the following line in the bottom of perldlgDlg.h:

                static PerlInterpreter *my_perl;


    7. Add the following includes to the top of perldlgDlg.h:

                #include <EXTERN.h>
          #include <perl.h>

    8. Place the following code at the bottom of your perlxsi.cpp file. IT MUST BE PLACED AT THE BOTTOM OF THE FILE AFTER EVERYTHING ELSE OR IT WON'T BUILD.

              #include "stdafx.h"

    9. Use the perl interpreter pointer declared earlier (*my_perl) in perldlgDlg.h to access perl functionality.

    10. Build perldlg.exe by selecting Build -> Build perldlg.exe

    You may get some compiler warnings about EXTERN_C being redefined. I just removed the second definition. While this may not be desirable, it does allow the application to compile, link, and run.

    Please understand that I am not certain as to why a lot of this was needed or how it all works, but I was successful in getting it to build. If you have questions, I'll do my best to help. Good luck!!

    -Matt
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