File: emacs-20.2-perlmacs-0.6.readme

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#######   THIS IS ALPHA SOFTWARE.  USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!   #######
#######   NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR CRASHES OR LOST DATA!!!!!!!  #######
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WHAT
----
Perlmacs 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.

WHERE
-----
http://www.perl.com/CPAN/authors/id/JTOBEY/emacs-20.2-perlmacs-0.6.pl.gz
Includes Emacs::Lisp module.

WHY
---
The goal is to allow Emacs modules and customization code to be
written in Perl, as well as Emacs Lisp.

The task at hand is to discuss bugs, possible uses and interface
details.  Anyone want to set up a mailing list or newsgroup?  Please
email me if you would like to do this.

HOW
---
You must first install PERL VERSION 5.004 or higher.  I have done
minimal testing with the development Perl version 5.004_59, and
somewhat more with Perl 5.004_03.

Your perl must have working ExtUtils::Embed and ExtUtils::MakeMaker
capabilities.  If not, the configure script will exclude Perl support,
and you will have essentially standard GNU Emacs, or possibly a
Perlified emacs and no Emacs::Lisp module.

Retrieve and untar the Emacs distribution from, for example:

   ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/emacs-20.2.tar.gz
   ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/gnu/emacs-20.2.tar.gz

Retrieve the patch (see above).  Then do

   cd emacs-20.2
   gzip -dc ../emacs-20.2-perlmacs-0.*.pl.gz |perl
   ./configure
   make

and, if you're the adventurous type,

   make install

(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

Most of the documentation for both the patch and the module is in
perl/Emacs/Lisp/Lisp.pm and should be accessible after installation
via

   perldoc Emacs::Lisp


CAVEATS
-------
As of this ALPHA version, crashes are many, and examples are few.

This is not meant to be tried 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!


-- John
jtobey@channel1.com