NAME
Perl::Dist::Vanilla - Vanilla Perl for Win32
DESCRIPTION
Vanilla Perl is an experimental Perl distribution for the Microsoft Windows platform that includes a bundled compiler. Vanilla Perl provides a Win32 installation of Perl that is as close as possible to the core Perl distrubution, while offering the ability to install XS CPAN modules directly from CPAN. Vanilla Perl aims to include only the smallest possible changes from the Perl core necessary to achieve this goal.
Vanilla Perl includes:
Perl 5.10.0
Mingw GCC C/C++ compiler
Dmake "make" tool
Vanilla Perl is intended for use by automated testing systems and master-level Perl developers. The primary anticipated uses for Vanilla Perl include examining Win32-related issues in the Perl core, and for working on fixing complex dependency and Win32 platform bugs in CPAN modules.
Vanilla Perl serves as the basis more user-centric Win32 Perl distributions that include incremental bundled capabilities for general application development or application deployment needs.
Vanilla Perl is strongly not recommended for general use on Win32 platforms for any purpose other than detecting and fixing bugs in Vanilla Perl and testing Win32 compatibility of various CPAN modules.
Vanilla Perl will undergo changes without notice over time in an attempt to intentionally provoke errors and uncover problems close to the Perl core, so users should expect that it may unexpectedly display strange behaviours and various other problems.
See "DOWNLOADING THE INSTALLER" for instructions on where to download and how to install Vanilla Perl.
See Perl::Dist::Inno at http://search.cpan.org for details on the builder used to create Vanilla Perl from source.
CHANGES FROM CORE PERL
Vanilla Perl is and will continue to be based on the latest "stable" release of Perl, currently version 5.10.0.
For the 5.10.0 series, no additional modules are installed.
A stub CPAN Config.pm file is installed. It provides defaults to the path for dmake, to automatically follow dependencies and some other tweaks to allow for a smoother CPAN usage.
DOWNLOADING THE INSTALLER
Vanilla Perl Builds from 4 on are available from http://vanillaperl.com/.
Earlier builds of Vanilla Perl are available on Sourceforge.net as part of the Camelpack project: http://camelpack.sourceforge.net/
CONFIGURATION
At present, the installation criteria for Vanilla Perl are quite strict.
We hope to address some of these issues during the 5.10.1 timeline to make things a bit more flexible.
Sorry :(
Vanilla cannot co-exist with any other Perl installations at this time.
Vanilla cannot co-exist with Cygwin.
You should remove any other Perl installations before installing Vanilla Perl.
Vanilla Perl must be installed in C:\vanilla.
Once installed, you should add to the following environment variables.
* add directories to PATH
- C:\vanilla\c\bin
- C:\vanilla\perl\bin
* add directories to LIB
- C:\vanilla\c\lib
- C:\vanilla\perl\bin
* add directories to INCLUDE
- C:\vanilla\c\include
- C:\vanilla\perl\lib\CORE LIB and INCLUDE changes are likely more than are necessary, but attempt to head off potential problems compiling external programs for use with Perl and various CPAN modules.
The "cpan" program is pre-configured with a known-good setup, but you may wish to reconfigure it.
Manual CPAN configuration may be repeated by running the following command:
perl -MCPAN::FirstTime -e "CPAN::FirstTime::init"CONTACTS AND BUGS REPORTING
Currently, Vanilla Perl discussion is centered at http://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-Vanilla@rt.cpan.org or submitted using the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=Perl-Dist-Vanilla
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 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.