README for Perl module Emacs::Lisp last updated: 21 Feb 1999 ################################################################## ###### CAUTION ###### CAUTION ###### CAUTION ###### CAUTION ###### ################################################################## ####### ####### ####### THIS IS ALPHA SOFTWARE. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK! ####### ####### NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR CRASHES OR LOST DATA!!!!!!! ####### ####### ####### ################################################################## ###### CAUTION ###### CAUTION ###### CAUTION ###### CAUTION ###### ################################################################## WHAT ---- Perlmacs is a patch of GNU Emacs. It creates a program that has all the functionality of both Perl and Emacs. The Emacs::Lisp module allows Perl code to call functions and access variables of Lisp. This release (Emacs::Lisp 0.72) is just version 0.71 updated for use with Emacs 20.3. You can't use it with a Perlmacs built from Emacs 20.2, and you should not use earlier versions of Emacs::Lisp (<=0.71) with Emacs 20.3. (They might seem to work, but they will crash or behave unpredictably.) To summarize the version dependencies: Emacs::Lisp Emacs Perl Perlmacs =========== ===== ==== ======== 0.71 20.2 5.004 0.6.2 0.72 20.3 5.004 0.6.2.1 0.73 20.3 5.005 0.7 WHY --- The intent is to allow Emacs modules and customization code to be written in Perl, as well as Emacs Lisp. HOW --- You must first install PERL VERSION 5.004 or higher. I have done minimal testing with the development Perl version 5.004_59 (WITHOUT thread support), and somewhat more with Perl 5.004_03. Your Perl must have working ExtUtils::Embed capabilities. If not, the patched Emacs configure script will exclude Perl support, and you will have something close to standard GNU Emacs. If you are unsure about this, watch the messages printed by `configure'. If they say that Perl is embeddable, good. If not, you might want to peek in the generated config.log for clues. Retrieve the Emacs 20.3 distribution from a location such as one of these: ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/emacs-20.3.tar.gz ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/gnu/emacs-20.3.tar.gz You may want to grab the Elisp Manual, elisp-manual-19-2.4.2.tar.gz, while you're there. Retrieve Perlmacs patch version 0.6.2.1 from http://www.perl.com/CPAN/authors/id/JTOBEY/emacs-20.3-perlmacs-0.6.2.1.pl.gz Then do gzip -dc emacs-20.3.tar.gz |tar xf - cd emacs-20.3 gzip -dc ../emacs-20.3-perlmacs-0.6.2.1.pl.gz |perl ./configure make make install NOTE: This will install the program as /usr/local/bin/emacs by default. If you wish to use an installed version of Perl other than the one that's in your $PATH, set the environment variable $PERL to the desired program when running configure. For example, under bash or sh: PERL=perl5.004 ./configure However, this method has been know to fail sometimes. To build Emacs::Lisp, do the following: gzip -dc Emacs-Lisp-*.tar.gz |tar xf - cd Emacs-Lisp-* emacs --perl Makefile.PL PERL='emacs --perl' make test Note that the default `make' target triggers a bug in at least some versions of MakeMaker. The symptom is the appearance of an Emacs window with an error message something like Unknown option `-I/usr/local/lib/perl5/i586-linux/5.00403' . A fix is planned for a later version of Perlmacs, in which you will be able to omit the `--perl' switch if the program is installed as `perl' or `perlmacs'. Until then, the workaround is to `make distclean' if you have built with `emacs --perl', and use the ordinary module build sequence instead; namely, perl Makefile.PL make make install In this case, `make test' will fail due to the absence of Lisp support in the Perl binary, but the module should now be accessible by Emacs. CAVEATS ------- As of this ALPHA version, crashes may occur, resulting in the loss of unsaved editing changes. (But as far as I can tell, they occur only in specific circumstances which do not affect what I consider "normal" use. I have been using a patched Emacs since Perlmacs version 0.3, and replaced my .emacs with a Perl script as of 0.6. The only crashes have occurred during admittedly risky experiments involving nonlocal jumps. Because I am careful to save my work often, I have not lost any data.) This is not meant to be tried (yet) on anything other than Unix-like systems. However, if you get it to work on non-unix, I would be delighted to hear about it! LICENSE ------- This module, like all extensions to GNU Emacs, is licensed under the GNU General Public License. See the files Lisp.pm and COPYING for details. -- John spam@john-edwin-tobey.org