How to install get_iplayer on WinXP with perl already installed?

[Jeremy Nicoll - ml get_iplayer]

dinkypumpkin <dinkypumpkin at gmail.com> wrote:

>On 05/07/2013 15:01, Jeremy Nicoll - ml get_iplayer wrote:
>> These almost all worked.  The install of
>>
>>    Net::SMTP::TLS::ButMaintained
>>
>> failed because during the test phase of its install it couldn't find a
>> random number generator.  I did follow a suggestion to install something
>> called 'egd' - an Entropy Gathering Daemon  - but that also failed during
>> its tests.
>
>No idea.  Do you have the same distribution of Strawberry Perl used for 
>the installer (5.16.2.1)?

No; it's 5.14.something.  I think I'm going to have a rethink.  As a newbie
to Perl I thought that PADRE with Perl seemed like a good idea; I found out
about that on http://www.perl.org/get.html where apart from Strawberry Perl,
DWIMPerl (which packages Strawberry Perl) was recommended because it came
with PADRE - it's just my bad luck that the Perl in it isn't recent.

It's ironic that I allowed myself to be tempted by a bundle of an IDE with a
version of Perl, when I'd just decided I didn't want the 'easy' install of
get_iplayer with a Perl bundled inside that!  

So I'll uninstall all of that and go back to a standalone Strawberry Perl,
and get 5.16.2.1 - which is not the current stable one, but I guess it's
better that I use the same version as you develop with. 

TBH I'm not sure I /need/ an IDE - I've got a perfectly good programmer's
text editor anyway.  I'd assumed that an IDE would be handy for GUI-based
debugging, but I guess that can wait.  Whatever I do I'll then pick an IDE,
if I need one, that's installed separately from perl itself.



> > If it comes to that, I don't understand why   get_iplayer   would need
> > the ability to do SMTP at all - unless this module is required by some
> > other module that does something more obviously necessary?
>
>If you don't want to use get_iplayer's email functions, then don't 
>install the modules.

Ah, good.


> > Before deciding to ask here, I looked at all of the installer stuff in
> > the get_iplayer tarball, including the nsi config files, batch files
> > etc.  So far as I can see if I were to use the pre-built windows
> > installer, all that would actually do perl-wise is unpack on my system a
> > copy of perl, modules etc that had been packaged up on the developer's
> > system.  That doesn't help me to understand how a developer with a
> > Windows system would themselves manage to install the
> > Net::SMTP::TLS::ButMaintained module.
>
>The installer scripts are irrelevant to how you do your own DIY 
>installation.

Well it turns out they are, but for all I knew there might have been a step
in them that installed a base level of Strawberry Perl and then installed
specific extra modules - that's why I looked at them in such detail.


> The installer can only be built from a full working Strawberry Perl
> installation with the optional modules for get_iplayer installed from CPAN
> just like normal, so there is no need to know how the installer is built.
> CPAN and Windows don't always make a happy marriage, but it can be done.
> All I can tell you is that all the modules install just fine with
> Strawberry Perl 5.16.2.1.  There would be no installer otherwise.

And those extra modules are normally installed by cpan/cpanm without telling
it to bypass tests?


Maybe SP 5.16.2.1 (or earlier, but more recent than 5.14.x) has a dll or
something that provides random number support for those parts of Windows
perl that can't use the /dev/random that unixy systems seem to need - for
which EGD was some sort of workaround.


> > I also note that the list of modules mentioned on the help webpage is
> > somewhat different from those mentioned, first in INSTALLER.md, which
> > says
>
>INSTALLER.md has been updated but not committed to Git repo.  The latest 
>installer is still getting a shakedown, so I won't commit changes until 
>final.  I would ignore that document, anyway.  All you need to know is 
>what modules to install, and you can get that from the installation page 
>in the GitHub wiki.

Well that is where I found the reference to the module that wouldn't
install...

Thanks for your help.

-- 
Jeremy Nicoll - my opinions are my own.