Welcome to libwin32 version 0.191.


WHAT
----

This used to be a bundle of extensions that provided a quick migration path
for people wanting to use the core support for win32 in perl 5.004 and later.

With the release of Perl version 5.005 (which brings ActiveState's changes
to Perl sources into the mainstream), this library of extensions has
assumed loftier motives.  The long term goal of this project is to provide
a coherent collection of modules that allow access to the functionality
provided by the Win32 API, while maintaining the style and spirit of Perl.
Like Perl, the intention is to make "easy things easy, and hard things
possible".  Note that we are nowhere close to this goal at the present
time, but we are slowly getting there.

As the name suggests, all modules in this distribution are Win32-specific.
They cannot be used on platforms that do not support the Win32 API.


WHAT HAS CHANGED
----------------

The top level "Changes" file contains a version by version overview of
the most significant changes.

This release has the following changes over the previous one (version 0.18):

   + Win32::Job is now available (thanks to Neil Watkiss).  This
     extension allows you to manipulate "job" objects (which are
     groups of processes) in Windows 2000 or later.  See the pod
     documentation for details.

   + Most modules that autoloaded their constants could reset $!
     during autoloading.  Such locations now localize $! before
     potentially modifying it.

   + EventLog has been upgraded to 0.073 (thanks to Brett Williams).
     EventLog/Changes has a list of bug fixes.

   + NetResource has been upgraded to 0.053.  See NetResource/Changes
     for the change log.

   + A Win32::GetOSName() function is now available.  It is documented
     in the Win32.pod distributed with perl 5.8.0-RC2 and with
     ActivePerl.

   + Some issues with building it under 5.8.0-RC2 have been fixed.

   + This release corresponds to the version of libwin32 included in
     ActivePerl 5.6.1.633.

Many thanks to all the contributors.


WHAT TO DO
----------

NOTE: If you already have ActivePerl build 633 or later installed, you
may already have a more recent version of libwin32 installed, and you
will not need to install this.  To be sure, run this:

    C:\> perl -MWin32 -e "print $Win32::VERSION"

If that prints 0.191 or later, you don't need to install this package.

Many modules come with their own test files.  You may want to use them
as a source of examples.  Many of the test files will only run on
Windows NT, others may require Windows NT 4.0, and still others may
require Administrator privileges, or a full-fledged Windows network.

This set of modules will build with perl v5.6.0 and later on the Windows
NT platform.  Building on Windows 95 is not supported (it *may* be
possible if you use the 4DOS command shell, but your mileage may vary).

   + First you need to build perl 5.6.0 or later (you will need
     either Visual C++ 5.x+ or Borland C++ 5.02+), and install it.  See
     README.win32 in the perl distribution for details on how to build
     perl for the Win32 platform.  ActivePerl build 613 or later will
     also suffice.

   + Make sure your perl is properly configured.  "perl -V:libpth" should
     report a valid path to your compiler's library files.

     If you built perl yourself, make sure you specify the C compiler's
     library location properly in the Makefile used to build perl.

     If your C compiler and libraries are installed in a path with
     spaces, you'll need to quote any components with spaces, or use
     the short path name equivalents.

   + All that done, you need to extract this distribution into an NTFS
     partition (the tests in the FileSecurity module and Net* modules
     will fail otherwise).  The testsuite for OLE needs Excel (from
     Office 2000) to run.  NetAdmin will only work if you have some kind
     of live network connection, and are in a domain with a properly
     configured domain controller.  NetResource requires that you
     be part of a domain or workgroup.  You may also need
     Administrator privileges for running some of the tests.
     If one or more of these conditions will not be met, you may
     wish to build in the subdirectories one by one.  The steps
     below will work either at the toplevel directory, or in each
     of the individual extension subdirectories.
   
   + You need either MS Visual C++ (OLE needs 4.2b, NetAdmin needs ver.
     4.x+, Internet needs ver. 5.0. ver. 2.0 should suffice for the
     others) or Borland C++ 5.02.  Make sure you have the full installation
     of either of these compilers ("Minimal" installations or CDROM-based
     installations may have problems finding all the libraries).
     [NOTE: I have only tested building this release with Visual Studio 98,
     aka Visual C++ 6.0.  Please send patches if you hit problems with
     the other compilers.] 
     
   + If the Internet extension doesn't build due to lack of libraries
     (the wininet.h header is included), fetch the Platform SDK from
     "http://www.microsoft.com/msdn/sdk/".  You need to look for wininet.h
     and wininet.dll.  If either of those is newer than the ones you already
     have, replace the older ones, and copy the newer wininet.lib into the
     Internet/ directory.

   + perl Makefile.PL               [either at toplevel or in subdirs]
   
   + $MAKE                          [either at toplevel or in subdirs]
   
   + $MAKE test                     [optional, some interactive tests]
   
   + $MAKE install                  [either at toplevel or in subdirs]

$MAKE above stands for either "dmake" or "nmake" depending on your
available compiler, and perl configuration.


WHAT THEN
---------

If you find any problems with these modules, kindly report them to both
the original author and to me.  While I have fixed many problems in these
modules, I may also have introduced brand new bugs in the process :)

I wish to thank the authors of these modules for their effort in making
them useful, and for making them freely available.

Suggestions, patches, testsuite additions, and wholesale rewrites welcome.

Enjoy!

Gurusamy Sarathy
gsar@ActiveState.com
8 July 2002


WHATEVER
--------

Copyright for many of the modules is held by their respective authors.
Look in the module subdirectories for any conditions of use.

The following copyright applies to all files that don't have an explicit
copyright statement:

    (c) 1995 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. 
	Developed by ActiveWare Internet Corp., http://www.ActiveWare.com

    Other modifications (c) 1997-2000 by Gurusamy Sarathy <gsar@ActiveState.com>
                        (c) 1999-2002 by ActiveState Corp.

    You may distribute under the terms of either the GNU General Public
    License or the Artistic License, as specified in the README file
    of the Perl distribution.
