Chas. Owens wrote: > On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 18:07, Rob Dixon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> Microsoft's 'nmake' is available for free, but some versions have been more >> compatible with standard modules than others, and in any case, as there is >> still >> no C compiler, on its own it is a solution only for pure Perl modules. > > You can actually get the Visual C/C++ compiler for free from Microsoft > (see the link in my last email). The general answer, though, seems to > be to use Strawberry Perl instead of ActiveState Perl. Strawberry > Perl comes with its own compiler and version of make.
Microsoft have always struggled with offering things for free, and there have been many handicapped versions of MS Visual C++ available in the last few years. Unless I have missed something, the PerlMonks entry that you linked ends up at http://msdn.microsoft.com/visualc/vctoolkit2003/ that is now a dead link. There is probably a similar current download, but I have given up chasing MS policy. I have paid less attention than I should to Strawberry Perl and what it will do, and the home page looks very promising. But I have to say that 'Expect' works at a very low level, and simple provision of a C compiler will not make the ends meet. A huge amount of work went into making 'threads' a cross-platform pragma, and while I hope Strawberry Perl has done something miraculous I will want to see it for myself. For all Windows' complexity and awkwardness, it is worth remembering that it has relatively few variants compared to Unix. The same applies to Mac OS, OS/2, VMS and so on. That means that while any of these platforms have fewer modules available to them, anything that is distributed prebuilt has a high likelihood of working out of the box. Compromises are wonderful things. Rob -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://learn.perl.org/
