NAME Perl::Dist::Strawberry - Strawberry Perl for win32 DESCRIPTION *Strawberry Perl is currently an alpha release and is not recommended for production purposes.* Strawberry Perl is a binary distribution of Perl for the Windows operating system. It includes a bundled compiler and pre-installed modules that offer the ability to install XS CPAN modules directly from CPAN. The purpose of the Strawberry Perl series is to provide a practical Win32 Perl environment for experienced Perl developers to experiment with and test the installation of various CPAN modules under Win32 conditions, and to provide a useful platform for doing real work. Strawberry Perl includes: * Perl 5.8.8 * Mingw GCC C/C++ compiler * Dmake "make" tool * ExtUtils::CBuilder and ExtUtils::ParseXS * Bundle::CPAN (including Perl modules that largely eliminate the need for external helper programs like "gzip" and "tar") * Bundle::LWP (providing more reliable http CPAN repository support) * Additional Perl modules that enhance the stability of core Perl for the Win32 platform The Perl::Dist::Strawberry distribution on CPAN contains programs and instructions for downloading component sources and assembling them into the executable installer for Strawberry Perl. It does not include the resulting Strawberry Perl installer itself. See "DOWNLOADING THE INSTALLER" for instructions on where to download and how to install Strawberry Perl. See Perl::Dist::Build at for details on the builder used to create Strawberry Perl from source. CHANGES FROM CORE PERL Strawberry Perl is and will continue to be based on the latest "stable" release of Perl, currently version 5.8.8. Some additional modifications are included that improve general compatibility with the Win32 platform or improve "turnkey" operation on Win32. Whenever possible, these modifications will be made only by preinstalling additional CPAN modules within Strawberry Perl, particularly modules that have been newly included as core Perl modules in the "development" branch of perl to address Win32 compatibility issues. Modules or distributions currently included are: * ExtUtils::MakeMaker 6.30_01 -- fixes a Win32 perl path bug * CPAN 1.87_57 -- many small fixes for numerous annoyances on Win32 * Win32API::File -- to allow for deletion of in-use files at next reboot; required for CPAN.pm to be able to upgrade itself * IO -- to address Win32 Socket bugs * Compress::Zlib, IO::Zlib and Archive::Tar -- to eliminate the CPAN.pm dependency on external, binary programs to handle .tar.gz files * Archive::Zip (and its dependency, Time::Local) -- to eliminate the CPAN.pm dependency on external, binary programs to handle .zip files * libnet -- provides Net::FTP to eliminate the CPAN.pm dependency on an external, binary ftp program; installed configured for FTP passive mode Additionally, a stub CPAN Config.pm file is installed. It provides defaults to the path for dmake, to automatically follow dependencies and to use the Windows temporary directory for the CPAN working directory. DOWNLOADING THE INSTALLER Strawberry Perl is available from . CONFIGURATION At present, Strawberry Perl must be installed in C:\strawberry. The executable installer adds the following environment variable changes: * adds directories to PATH - C:\strawberry\perl\bin - C:\strawberry\c\bin * adds directories to LIB - C:\strawberry\perl\bin - C:\strawberry\c\lib * adds directories to INCLUDE - C:\strawberry\perl\lib\CORE - C:\strawberry\mingw\include LIB and INCLUDE changes are likely more than are necessary, but attempt to head off potential problems compiling external programs for use with Perl. Users installing Strawberry Perl without the installer will need to change their environment variables manually. The first time that the "cpan" program is run, users will be prompted for configuration settings. With the defaults provided in Strawberry Perl, users may answer "no" to manual configuration and the installation should still work. Manual CPAN configuration may be repeated by running the following command: perl -MCPAN::FirstTime -e "CPAN::FirstTime::init" VERSION HISTORY AND ROADMAP Perl::Dist::Strawberry version numbers map to Strawberry Perl release versions as follows: Pre-release series (0.x.y) 0.0.1 -- Strawberry Perl 5.8.8 Alpha 1 (July 9, 2006) 0.1.2 -- Strawberry Perl 5.8.8 Alpha 2 (August 27, 2006) 0.1.y -- Alpha series 0.3.y -- Beta series 0.5.y -- Release candidate series Perl 5.8 series (1.x.y) -- 'x' will be odd for test releases Perl 5.10 series (2.x.y) -- 'x' will be odd for test releases Strawberry Perl is targeting release 1.0.0 to correspond to the next maintenance release of Perl (5.8.9), which should include most of the "changes from core Perl" listed above. Strawberry Perl will be declared Beta when the pre-release candidate for Perl 5.8.9 is available. CONTACTS AND BUGS REPORTING Currently, Strawberry Perl discussion is centered at win32.perl.org. New venues for discussion may be listed there. Please report bugs or feature requests using the CPAN Request Tracker. Bugs can be sent by email to "bug-Perl-Dist-Strawberry@rt.cpan.org" or submitted using the web interface at COPYRIGHT Copyright 2007 - 2008 Adam Kennedy. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.