Currently building Perl/Tk under cygwin is broken using the native
Win32 GUI libraries. Therefore the default is to build using X11
libraries (but note that this may change, so it's best to specify the
window architecture, see below).

Using the X11 libraries, "make test" will very probably fail due to
"rebase" problems, but Perl/Tk should be mostly usable after an
installation and maybe a manual "rebaseall" after.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a brief description of how to get the Tk module working with
Perl and Cygwin.

CONFIGURE/BUILD

    Use native Win32 GUI calls:

        perl Makefile.PL MSWin32

    Use X11 client libraries (and requires a X server):

        Precompiled X11 client libraries can be downloaded from
        ftp://sourceware.cygnus.com/pub/cygwin/xfree/xc-4-binaries/
            xfree86-4.0-DLLs.tar.bz2
            xfree86-4.0-devel.tar.bz2

        NOTE: Your DISPLAY must be 127.0.0.1:0.0
              Your PATH must include the DLL directory, /usr/X11R6/bin

        perl Makefile.PL x

    or

        perl Makefile.PL

    make

TEST

    make test
    perl -Mblib demos/widget

INSTALL

    make install

SIDE-BY-SIDE PORT COMPARISONS (demos/widget)

    X11 (Hummingbird/Exceed X Server, V6.1)

        + Motif look and feel
        + Scroll wheel does not work with X11 (config?)
        + Global grabs only affect X11 windows (config?)
        + Menus, normal style
          - Alt+x does not post menus (config?)
        + $Tk::platform => unix

    Win32

        + Windows look and feel
        + Uses Win32 clipboard
        + Help on menu bar not all the way to the right
        + Tear-off menus placed at upper-left instead of near pointer
        + Tile and Transparent, no tiled camels, third window not
          transparent
        + Menus, normal style
          - File - "Error: unknown option "-label" at Tk.pm line 217
        + Menus, Perl/Tk style
          - Menus do not drop as traverse with button press
          - Alt+x does not post menus
        + Native Win32 FileSelect dialog, FileSelect/FBox the same
        + Native Win32 ChooseColor dialog
        + Balls bouncing, when start restacked below widget demo window
          (if bounce window not moved)
        + Global grabs only affect current application
        + IntelliMouse with IntelliEye (but ok with a trackball, setting?)
          - Button-2 dragging/scanning does not work well
          - Button-2 for copy/paste does not work well
            (seems to flip into a scroll mode)
        + $Tk::TkwinVtab, $Tk::TkwinintVtab variables
        + $Tk::platform => MSWin32

    Both
        + Tear-off menus restack parent below widget demo window
        + Meta-backspace, Meta-d not working (Meta config?)
        + Menus, normal and Perl/Tk style
          - Meta+x accelerators (Control+x okay) not working (config?)

    X11 (Cygwin)   v X11 (Solaris)

        No differences that I could find!

    Win32 (Cygwin) v Win32 (MSWin32/ActiveState)

        + Menus, normal style
          - Accelerators Win32 bound to Control, Cygwin bound to Meta
            (see demos/demos/widget_lib/menus.pl, $^O eq 'MSWin32')
          - Win32 ^A does not work (Meta+A with X11), ^H does

PORTING NOTES

    + $Tk::platform is really the win_arch, where unix is x
      (sometimes $^O eq 'MSWin32' is used instead of $Tk::platform
       eq 'MSWin32' assuming they are equivalent and vice versa)
    + #define distinctions
        _WIN32                defined by gcc, if X11 need to undef
        __WIN32__             win_arch MSWin32, also defined in pTk/Lang.h
        WIN32                 from #include <windows.h>
                              when precedes #include "perl.h" then need
                              a #undef WIN32 (otherwise tries to include
                              Win32 Perl things like win32.h, defined
                              by native Win32 port)
    + With native Win32 GUI use Cygwin select() with /dev/windows
      pseudo-device rather than using Win32 GetMessage() directly
    + pTk/mTk/win/tkWinX.c, pTk/mTk/generic/tkPort.h part of core Tk,
      which is ordinarily not touched by Tk Perl module? pTk/Tcl-pTk?

FILES (with Cygwin references)

    README.cygwin MANIFEST
    * documentation

    Makefile.PL Tk/MMutil.pm pTk/Makefile.PL
    * make stuff

    pTk/mTk/win/tkWinX.c
    * GetMessage() via select() on /dev/windows and callback

    Scrollbar/Scrollbar.xs tkWin32Dll.c
    * defined(__WIN32__) && defined(__CYGWIN__)

    tkGlue.c
    * refdef XS because __declspec(dllexport) incompatible with static
    * defined(__WIN32__) && defined(__CYGWIN__) and pTk/tkWin.h
      includes <windows.h> which defines WIN32

    Tk.pm
    * set $Tk::platform with help from $Tk::Config::win_arch

    DragDrop/site_test Tk/X11Font.pm t/create.t t/mwm.t
    * $^O eq 'cygwin' and $Tk::platform eq 'MSWin32'

    DragDrop/Win32Site/Win32Site.xs
    * #undef WIN32 from <windows.h>

    pTk/mTk/generic/tkPort.h
    * resolve strcasecmp/stricmp #define mess

    pTk/Lang.h
    * some defs ordinarily from tkUnixPort.h

    chnGlue.c
    * Cygwin has O_BINARY

    IO/IO.xs
    * Cygwin has O_NONBLOCK

TODO

    + Any way to have X11 and native Win32 versions available
      at the same time?  Build with Xlib/Win32 emulator (see rxvt)?
    + Fix gcc warnings, mostly in pTk win32 flavor?
    + Test with cygwin-xfree X Server?

Thu Aug 31 12:54:09 BST 2000
Eric Fifer
efifer@dircon.co.uk