This is a bundle of Win32 extensions that provides a quick migration
path for people wanting to use the core support for win32 in perl 5.004.
It features the complete set of Win32-specific extensions available
from CPAN that could previously only be used with Activeware's
"Perl for Win32"(TM).

Most other non-Win32 extensions should build fairly smoothly using
the MakeMaker support available in perl 5.004, so they are not included
in this bundle.


---NOTE----NOTE----NOTE----NOTE----NOTE----NOTE----NOTE----NOTE---NOTE---
|                                                                       |
|  This distribution does not contain binaries at this time.  There are |
|  plans to distribute binaries of both perl 5.004 and this bundle,     |
|  once 5.004 is available.                                             |
|                                                                       |
---NOTE----NOTE----NOTE----NOTE----NOTE----NOTE----NOTE----NOTE---NOTE---


This collection will build with perl5.003_99a and later, using Visual
C++ 4.x or later on the Windows NT platform (Visual C++ 2.x may suffice
for most modules, some will fail for lack of header files in those old
compilers).  You will first need to build and install perl before
proceeding with this set of modules.  See README.win32 in the perl
distribution for details on how to build perl on Win32.

Here is what this bundle contains:

   * The collection of modules originally distributed by the Activeware
     folks as part of their "Perl for Win32"(TM) port.  These have been
     modified so that they will build under MakeMaker using perls greater
     than 5.003_99 and Visual C++.  Along the way, I have added many
     bugfixes to make these modules work correctly.

     The complete list of Activeware extensions is available:

        Win32/EventLog
        Win32/File
        Win32/FileSecurity
        Win32/NetAdmin
        Win32/NetResource
        Win32/OLE
        Win32/Registry
        Win32/Service
        Win32/WinError
        Win32/ChangeNotify
        Win32/IPC
        Win32/Mutex
        Win32/Process
        Win32/Semaphore

     Note this covers all of the Win32 extensions distributed by
     Activeware (as of build 306).

     These extensions have been re-engineered to use the XS interface
     language, yet the changes are compatible with the originals.  This
     should minimize any problems for people wanting to migrate their
     application to 5.004.  The design of these modules is subject to
     change in future.

     The only deliberately incompatible change is in the Win32::OLE
     module.  While the Activeware port used the "OLE::" and "Win32::"
     namespaces for the functionality contained in this module, this
     port uses "Win32::OLE::" consistently.  For a list of other
     incompatibilities in Win32::OLE, see the embedded documentation
     in "OLE/OLE.pm".

   * The following five modules maintained by Aldo Calpini
     <dada@divinf.it>:

        Win32/Clipboard
        Win32/Console
        Win32/Internet
        Win32/Shortcut
        Win32/Sound

     These also have been converted back to XS.  I have added
     bug fixes as I found them during the conversion process.

   * Three useful modules maintained by Dave Roth <rothd@roth.net>.

        Win32/AdminMisc
        Win32/ODBC
        Win32/Pipe

     These have only received just the bare modifications needed to
     build them under MakeMaker.  *.xs are really C/C++ files
     masquerading as XS.  Win32/ODBC hasn't been tested much.


Building:

   + You need to extract this into an NTFS file system (the
     tests in the FileSecurity module and Net* modules will
     fail otherwise).  The testsuite for OLE needs Excel to
     run.  NetAdmin will only work if you have some kind of
     live network connection.  NetResource requires that you
     be part of a domain or workgroup.  You may also need
     Administrator prvileges 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 MS Visual C++ (NetAdmin and Internet need ver. 4.x+,
     ver. 2.0 should suffice for the others).
   
   + perl Makefile.PL               [either at toplevel or in subdirs]
   
   + nmake                          [either at toplevel or in subdirs]
   
   + nmake test                     [optional, some interactive tests]
   
   + nmake install                  [either at toplevel or in subdirs]


A brief statment of intent:  I am doing this to ease the transition
for many people who may wish to start using the latest perl on win32
platforms.  Long term development of these modules remains the
responsibility of the respective authors.

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

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

Suggestions, patches, testsuite additions, wholesale rewrites and
additional ports of modules welcome.


Gurusamy Sarathy
gsar@umich.edu
13-MAY-1997


COPYRIGHT

Copyright for the following modules: 

    AdminMisc ODBC Pipe Clipboard Console Internet Shortcut Sound

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

The following copyright applies to the remaining, Activeware-derived
modules:

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

    Other modifications (c) 1997 by Gurusamy Sarathy <gsar@umich.edu>

    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.


