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Re^2: Free MSVC tools + Activestate to compile CPAN Modules

by jZed (Prior)
on Aug 31, 2004 at 14:37 UTC ( [id://387204]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to Re: Free MSVC tools + Activestate to compile CPAN Modules
in thread Free MSVC tools + Activestate to compile CPAN Modules

its better to set your paths by using the vcvars32.bat

The set commands I listed above include the vcvars32.bat commands. But the vcvars32.bat does not set the environment for the SDK, only the Toolkit so it is not sufficienct by itself. You can save the set commands listed above as a batch file and run that *instead* of vcvars32.bat, or, as you point out, you can put these permanently in your enviornment (do as demerphq advices to make a diff, then, right click on my computer, select properties-advanced, select environment variables, find the PATH, LIB, and INCLUDE vars and set them with the output of the diff, or as I show above).

If you want to avoid pain, don't put spaces in the install paths

While I am sure you are right for most paths that have to do with perl, I do not believe that the spaces make any difference when they are meant (as the ones in the set commands above are) exclusively for use by windows. OTOH, the spaces bit me (and you helped me, thanks) when I tried to put the perl build (the one I unsuccessfully tried to build manually) in a directory with spaces. Your advice is probably safest as a general policy, but I really don't think it should or does make any difference for the compiler tools.

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Re^3: Free MSVC tools + Activestate to compile CPAN Modules
by demerphq (Chancellor) on Aug 31, 2004 at 15:06 UTC

    but I really don't think it should or does make any difference for the compiler tools.

    My worry is that it may cause problems for such things as Inline.pm or ExtUtils::MakeMaker or various other cpan packages that involve compiling (some packages will try to compile little C snippets to see if your C compiler is available). Not all of these packages are smart enough to handle the various cross platform issues that come up, especially not spaces in the install paths.

    I _strongly_ recommend that you install as much as possible in paths with no spaces for this reason. For instance I usually install Visual Studio dotNet in E:\dotNet and not in the MS recommended ditrectories. Ive never had a problem as long as I did this. However every time i forget about this (when I build a new machine for instance) and I always end up getting bitten and having to junction or reinstall. So while im sure a lot of stuff will work fine, i think the safest plan, and the lowest stress is to avoid them. After all its always when you have 6 minutes to get something done that a CPAN install blows up and starts wining about not being able to find the compiler that is most definately there. :-)

    OTOH, im not going to get too strung out about it, after all Ive already installed them in directories without spaces in their names so it wont be me getting bitten. :-p


    ---
    demerphq

      First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
      -- Gandhi


      My worry is that it may cause problems for such things as Inline.pm or ExtUtils::MakeMaker or various other cpan packages that involve compiling

      Aha! Excellent point. I retract my caveat to your advice. OTOH, I beleive that the better fix is for those modules to behave properly given the known fact that windows directory names can contain spaces. It should not be up to perl users to fiddle with these details, perl and perl modules should handle them.

        It should not be up to perl users to fiddle with these details, perl and perl modules should handle them.

        Agreed. But until then we can rail about the injustice of it all or just adjust our behaviour. Since getting some of the responsible people to patch their stuff is like watching ice boil i prefer to save myself the pain :-)

        OTOH, its worthwhile making patches for this stuff and sending it off when you can.


        ---
        demerphq

          First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
          -- Gandhi


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