[MacPerl-Porters] Re: [MacPerl] What can MacPerl bring to Mac OS X (Server)?

[Matthias Neeracher <neeri@iis.ee.ethz.ch>]

In article <v0422081ab4d8adbef11e@w205.z205158144.scl-ca.dsl.cnc.net>, Rich Morin <rdm@cfcl.com> writes:

> At 3:22 PM -0500 2/22/00, Jonathan W. Daniel wrote:
>> Where does MacPerl come into play now that OS X Server is here.

> Taking this question very generally, one might ask:

>    "What can MacPerl bring to Mac OS X (Server)?"

> Given that Matthias expects to make MacPerl run under Carbon

Did I say that? I don't recall. See below.

> part of the question is easy.  MacPerl will run under Carbon (and
> Classic, one presumes :-).

Yes, MacPerl should run just fine under Classic.

> The dicier issues have to do with MacPerl's operation under Cocoa
> and the BSD command line.  I would _like_ to see versions of Perl
> which ran under each.  Ideally, one would be able to use the Cocoa
> interface technology fairly smoothly with MacPerl and/or call Mac-
> style modules from a BSD version of Perl.

A couple of points:

 - There are no Cocoa, Carbon, or BSD command lines to "run under" as such.
   Any process can pretty much mix & match whatever it wants from Carbon &
   Cocoa.
 - Specifically, last year I ported some of the MacOS Toolbox modules as
   dynamic libraries on MacOS X with Carbon and ran them WITH THE STANDARD
   BSD-style perl version shipping with MacOS X. This worked quite well
   (considering my total inexperience at the time).
 - There is apparently a Perl-Objective C bridge to help access Cocoa, but I
   haven't looked at this side of things much yet.
 - I'm not entirely sure if you can make a #! script into a double clickable
   application on MacOS X, but if not, it certainly would not require much
   wrapping effort.

> All of this will take time and effort, however, and Matthias is
> already giving us a great deal of unpaid development.  I therefore
> suggest that folks who want these kinds of things to happen should
> get together with each other to discuss ways to implement them.

I would definitely like to make Perl a first class citizen on MacOS X, with a
full Carbon and Cocoa interface. However, my priorities at the moment are on
MacOS [789] Perl. Furthermore, I'd like to have a broader consensus about the
Perl Carbon mapping, and possibly even Apple involvement. It seems, however,
that there is currently no official Apple interest in supporting languages at a
level higher than Java for UI related programming (Although Perl is certainly
supported for POSIX level programming).

Matthias

-- 
Matthias Neeracher   <neeri@iis.ee.ethz.ch>   http://www.iis.ee.ethz.ch/~neeri
  "And that's why I am going to turn this world upside down, and make
   of it a fire so *bright* that someone real will notice"
                                -- Vernor Vinge, _Tatja Grimm's World_

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