This is a MSDOS/DJGPP port of perl 5.004_02.

For those who don't know what DJGPP is, here is a brief intro from the 
DJGPP faq:

 DJGPP is a port of GNU C/C++ compiler and development tools to 32-bit,
 protected-mode environment on Intel 32-bit CPUs running MS-DOS and compatible
 operating systems, by DJ Delorie <dj@delorie.com> and friends.  Starting from
 v2.0, DJGPP programs do not need a separate extender program, only a DPMI
 server to run; DJGPP includes a free 32-bit DPMI server which allows for a
 32-bit, 4 GByte flat address space and up to 256 MBytes of virtual memory, a
 compiler which produces 32-bit protected-mode code, and a suite of GNU
 development tools ported to MS-DOS.  These provide for a development
 environment which specifically favors porting Unix programs, but is also
 suitable for writing new code (for example, the DOS version of the well-known
 game `Quake' by id Software was compiled with DJGPP).  With a few exceptions
 (notably, some of the C++ class libraries), DJGPP is *free* which makes it
 deal for developing free and commercial software alike.
 
For more details, check out the home of DJGPP at:

        http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/

You can get the FAQ and the DJGPP packages from the SimTel.NET mirrors in 
the pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/ subdirectory.

The primary SimTel.NET site is:
     ftp.simtel.net, directory /pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp

I recommend to download and install the following packages:

 `v2/readme.1st'        This explains how to install DJGPP and get started
                        with using it.
                      
 `v2/faq210b.zip'       The latest edition of the FAQ list.  Use it whenever
                        you have problems installing and using DJGPP.
                                              
 `v2misc/csdpmi3b.zip'  CWSDPMI, the DJGPP free DPMI server.  If you can 
                        get DPMI services in your environment, like if you 
                        run under Windows, QDPMI, or OS/2, you don't need
                        CWSDPMI.

 `v2gnu/bsh1147b.zip'   Bash (`Borne-Again SHell'), the GNU shell, and its
                        docs. This is required if you want to run MakeMaker.        
                        
For description of additional files not mentioned here, get the file
`00_index.txt'; it contains a full list of the distribution files and a
short description of every file.


Installation
------------

- Unzip the binary package `perl542b.zip' preserving the directory
structure (-d switch to PKUNZIP) from the top DJGPP directory (if you 
don't use other DJGPP packages, you can unzip it from any directory you
like, e.g. c:/perl. Don't forget to add the `bin' directory to your PATH!).
If you want to use perl with Long File Names (win0.95), then use a LFN
aware unzip and add

         set LFN=y

to your autoexec.bat or DJGPP.ENV.

- Edit `lib/perl5/Config.pm', and replace every `c:/djgpp' with your
installation directory. This can be done with perl too:
   
         perl -i~ -pe "s!c:/djgpp!x:/djroot!i;" lib/perl5/Config.pm
                                  ^^^^^^^^^
                   Substitute this with your install directory!

- This version of perl expects its library files in `../lib/perl5/',
which is relative to the path of perl.exe. If you don't like this,
you can use the PERL5LIB environment variable to tell perl where 
the library is. E.g:
     
         set PERL5LIB=c:/perl/lib
              
Warning: if you set PERL5LIB and use tainting checks (-T command line 
option), perl ignores PERL5LIB, so you must use the -I command line
option or the "use lib '...'"  construct. Or you can recompile perl.exe :)

- Perl works best with a unixy shell, so you may want to download and
install bash (bshXXXXb.zip from the usual DJGPP sites). After installing
it make the 'SHELL' environment variable point to your bash.exe.
Finally create a `link' to your bash.exe in your `bin' directory:

         ln -s bash.exe sh.exe          
or
         stubify -g sh.exe              
         stubedit sh.exe runfile=bash       
or
         copy bash.exe sh.exe

- The documentation is in `lib/perl5/pod'. You can read the .pod files
with any editor, or you can use the `perldoc' utility. For more info:

         perl -S perldoc -h

It tries to use less.exe or more.com, but you can use other pagers:
     
         SET PAGER=path_of_your_favourite_pager
         
Pros
----

* No memory problems, perl can use up to 256Mbytes of virtual memory.
* DJGPP programs can use long command lines when communicating with
  each other.
* Long filename support under win0.95.
* Builtin filename globbing (with extras: like ".../*.pl").
* And more.. :-)

Cons
----

* No dynamic loading (yet).
* No sockets (yet).
* No fork (hey, this is just dos!).
* Inplace editing is a little bit broken if LFN=n.
* This documentation could be better ;-)

If you have any dos/djgpp specific problem using perl, just email me:

        Laszlo Molnar <molnarl@cdata.tvnet.hu>