use Perl

I haven't used MS Windows as my main OS in around 3 years - not long after I created Vanilla Perl for Alias' "vertical metre of beer" contest, in fact.

For various reasons, I decided this Monday to switch from using Fedora and running Windows inside a virtual machine when necessary - to running Windows 7 as my main OS, and running Fedora inside a virtual machine when necessary.

After installation, I grabbed the latest Strawberry Perl installer and ran it - nice and quick, with no unnecessary questions.
Fired up a console - yup, perl.exe is in my path - nice.

Then I fired up the CPAN shortcut from the programs menu - `install HTML::FormFu` - completed with no errors - nice.
Same for Catalyst, DBIx::Class, HTML::FormFu::Model::DBIC, ...

Catalyst::Controller::HTML::FormFu failed with errors from WWW::Mechanize - but then that normally happens for me under linux too. If memory serves, I force installed WWW::Mechanize, installed Test::WWW::Mechanize, force installed Catalyst::Test::WWW::Mechanize, and then installed Catalyst::Controller::HTML::FormFu with all tests passing.

Tried installing DBD::mysql and after spending far too long battling with its Makefile.PL and then compilation errors, I thought "does Strawberry ship with a working PPM nowadays?" - and yes - it does!
Start a new console; ppm; install DBD::mysql.
very nice!

Yes, then I installed Padre with no errors :)
which isn't something I had managed to do under Fedora - after building a threading perl, I still couldn't get Wx to install.

I'm not complaining about the installation errors I did encounter - I consider having to work around occasional cpan errors as a small price to pay for the benefits that cpan modules give me - heck, my own modules aren't immune from installation errors occasionally.

What amazes me is - first, how far the Strawberry Perl community have taken the original Vanilla Perl hack and made it into an unrecognisably slick and usable product - and secondly, how their testing and feedback efforts have made Perl on Windows so much more viable and enjoyable.

Looking at strawberryperl.com and the win32.perl.org wiki, I can't even figure out who is currently working on the project - so thanks, whoever you are! ;)

HTML-FormFu test suite: 326 files, 1781 tests.

As of svn revision 1205, the runtime has dropped from 50 seconds to 8 seconds.

In a word, "thankyou" :)

I've been using the free komodo editor for the past few months - since I finally got too frustrated with the slow memory-hog that is Eclipse/EPIC (and this is /after/ recently upgrading to a new 2.2GHz dual-core 2GB ram machine).

I managed to buy one of the perl Dev-Kits that were auctioned off in Copenhagen last week.

There must have been a bit of confusion, as it was advertised as "including komodo", which it wasn't - but ActiveState were good enough to let me have a license for the Komodo IDE instead of the Dev-Kit, as that was what I was really interested in.

Within about ten seconds of loading the IDE up, I was grinning, and very happy with my purchase.
The subroutine select-menu, the code browser, svn integration, DOM browser - this is what eclipse/EPIC tries to be - but this fast!

Granted, I only paid 300 DKK, not the usual 295 USD - but now that I've seen the product and started working with it - I'll certainly be getting my $work to buy any upgrades that come out.

After weeks of frustration with firefox randomly scrolling back through the page history when I tried to use the trackpad on this Dell laptop - I've discovered the magic incantation to fix it.

about:config

mousewheel.horizscroll.withnokey.action = 0

"500 oops: cannot change directory"

Trying to ftp in to a Fedora Core 5 box using a local username. Password is accepted, but the connection is then closed with this error message.

This is because of SELinux's policies. To fix it, issue (as root):

setsebool -P ftp_home_dir=1

The -P flag ensures the value is saved after reboot.

keywords: Fedora Core 5 linux, vsftpd, SELinux, connection failure

If you find a transaction in your bank statement from a company called "Club 24 Honours LEEDS. GB" and you think you've never done business with a Club 24, never mind been to Leeds; don't waste money getting your bank to dispute the transaction, it's actually from "Honours Student Loans".

Of course.

Hopefully google will now lead others to the truth!

Compilation of PAR 0.89 fails with this error message:

>dmake
gcc -c -s -O2 -DWIN32 -DHAVE_DES_FCRYPT -DPERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT -DPERL_IMPLICIT_
SYS -fno-strict-aliasing -DPERL_MSVCRT_READFIX  -I"C:\usr\local\perl\lib\CORE" s
tatic.c
In file included from c:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/3.4.2/../../../../include/
fcntl.h:20,
                 from mktmpdir.h:3,
                 from mktmpdir.c:1,
                 from static.c:8:
c:/mingw/bin/../lib/gcc/mingw32/3.4.2/../../../../include/io.h:162: 39: macro "mk
dir" requires 2 arguments, but only 1 given
dmake:  Error code 129, while making 'static.o'
dmake:  Error code 255, while making 'subdirs'

Solution: Near the top of the PAR file "myldr/static.c" change this:

#ifdef WIN32
# include <process.h>
# define mkdir(file, mode) _mkdir(file)
#endif

to this (just add the io.h line):

#ifdef WIN32
# include <io.h>
# include <process.h>
# define mkdir(file, mode) _mkdir(file)
#endif

keywords: PAR, mingw, perl, windows, win32, mkdir, compilation failure

Reference: http://www.mail-archive.com/par@perl.org/msg01904.html

This is because PAR seems to fork a new child process, then immediately close. This causes the unless (caller) condition in the app.pl file to always be false.

in the main app.pl file, change:

unless(caller){
    my $app = myApp->new();
    $app->MainLoop();
}

to this:

my $app = myApp->new();
$app->MainLoop();

keywords: PAR, pp, WxGlade, Wx, wxperl, perl, windows, win32

This application has failed to start because wxbase26u_gcc_custom.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem.

Add the .dll using the -l argument to pp. Specify the full path to the .dll, build the .exe again and repeat.

I had to add:

-l c:\\Perl\\site\\lib\\auto\\Wx\\wxbase26u_gcc_custom.dll
-l c:\\Perl\\site\\lib\\auto\\Wx\\wxmsw26u_adv_gcc_custom.dll
-l c:\\Perl\\site\\lib\\auto\\Wx\\wxmsw26u_core_gcc_custom.dll

keywords: PAR, pp, Wx, wxperl, activestate, perl, windows, win32

Run the .exe from a command prompt, so that you can see the error messages. If it's not finding modules, add them to your pp argument list using the -M flag. Build the .exe again and repeat.

I had to add:

-M Wx::DND
-M Wx::DocView
-M Wx::FS
-M Wx::Grid
-M Wx::Help
-M Wx::Html
-M Wx::MDI
-M Wx::Print
-M utf8

keywords: PAR, pp, Wx, wxperl, perlapp, activestate, perl, windows, win32