pyPerl
				  by
			   David W. Schere
		   davidws@csmctmto.interpoint.net

	This was a weekend effort to make an extension module so
Python can manipulate Perl. Currently, there are 1 million Perl
programmers in the world. I don't know what the numbers are for
Python but its safe to say that there are at least 20 perl programmers 
for every Python programmer. I think Python is a better language, 
but the fact is that the foundation of the internet lies with Perl 
and I am sick of seeing Python bindings in alpha while Perl bindings 
are at 1.0 or better.  
	I wrote this extension for me and my work. It is the bare
bones nessessary to execute perl scripts and evaluate results from 
within Python. This should be good enough to harness the Perl libraries
that I want from within Python.  



============= Build and install ================================

Pre-requisites:
	o SWIG	
	o Perl and the 'ExtUtils::Embed' library which can be found 
	  in the CPAN modules/by-module on www.perl.org
	

Build:
	Edit the make.sh with the path for your Python include files
	just execute the make.sh script
	DO NOT GO make. I had a difficult time builing this thing

Install:
	Be sure to place the perlIntermodule.so in your PYTHONPATH.   


============== pyPerl  API =====================================
perlInter supports that following API:

# Creates a new perl interpreter and/or increments a
# reference count
perl_create()

# Destroys a perl interpreter and/or decrements a reference count
perl_destroy()

# Executes aperl script as a python string
perl_eval( script )

#-- After execution of script use the below methods to fetch the 
#-- values within the script

# return and integer value of a perl scalar
python_int = perl_IntFromName( scalar_name )

# return a floating point value of a perl scalar
python_float = perl_FloatFromName( scalar_name )

# return a string value of a perl scalar 
python_string = perl_StringFromName( scalar_name )

# returns a copy of the name perl list into a python list
python_list = perl_ListFromName( list_name)

# return a copy of the contents of a perl hash table into
# a python dictionary
python_dict  perl_DictFromName( hash_name )

# if any call returns an error than we return an error message
python_string = perl_error()


======================= For the lawyers =========================
Author: David W. Schere
Copyright (C) 1998 DIDX llc.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.
===============================================================