In a nutshell you need to compile your code with the same compiler that compiled perl. If you are using Active State Perl the compiler is cl.exe which is part of MSVC++. See A Practical Guide to Compiling C based Modules under ActiveState using Microsoft C++ for some hints.

It works fine for me using the setup described and cl.exe:

# Have a look at the options perl was built with (we don't need all of
+ them!)......

C:\>perl -MExtUtils::Embed -e ccopts -e ldopts
  -nologo -nodefaultlib -debug -opt:ref,icf  -libpath:"D:\Perl\lib\COR
+E"  -machine:x86  D:\Perl\lib\CORE\perl56.lib D:\Perl\lib\CORE\oldnam
+e
s.lib D:\Perl\lib\CORE\kernel32.lib D:\Perl\lib\CORE\user32.lib D:\Per
+l\lib\CORE\gdi32.lib D:\Perl\lib\CORE\winspool.lib D:\Perl\lib\CORE\c
+o
mdlg32.lib D:\Perl\lib\CORE\advapi32.lib D:\Perl\lib\CORE\shell32.lib 
+D:\Perl\lib\CORE\ole32.lib D:\Perl\lib\CORE\oleaut32.lib D:\Perl\lib\
+C
ORE\netapi32.lib D:\Perl\lib\CORE\uuid.lib D:\Perl\lib\CORE\wsock32.li
+b D:\Perl\lib\CORE\mpr.lib D:\Perl\lib\CORE\winmm.lib D:\Perl\lib\COR
+E
\version.lib D:\Perl\lib\CORE\odbc32.lib D:\Perl\lib\CORE\odbccp32.lib
+ D:\Perl\lib\CORE\msvcrt.lib
 -nologo -O1 -MD -Zi -DNDEBUG -DWIN32 -D_CONSOLE -DNO_STRICT -DHAVE_DE
+S_FCRYPT  -DPERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT -DPERL_IMPLICIT_SYS -DPERL_MSVCRT_R
+E
ADFIX  -I"D:\Perl\lib\CORE"


# here is the code

C:\>type interp.c
#include <EXTERN.h>     /* from the Perl distribution     */
#include <perl.h>       /* from the Perl distribution     */

static PerlInterpreter *my_perl;  /* The Perl interpreter */

int main(int argc, char **argv, char **env)
{
    my_perl = perl_alloc();
    perl_construct(my_perl);
    perl_parse(my_perl, NULL, argc, argv, (char **)NULL);
    perl_run(my_perl);
    perl_destruct(my_perl);
    perl_free(my_perl);
}


# Here are the flags that I passed to make it compile

# Essentially we pass all the same -D defines that perl was built with
+ plus
# the include dir to find the perl headers and the perl56.lib binary w
+hich is 
# what where the real functions defined in the headers are found and w
+hat we 
# will be linking against........

C:\>cl.exe  -nologo  -MD -Zi -DNDEBUG -DWIN32 -D_CONSOLE -DNO_STRICT -
+DHAVE_DES_FCRYPT  -DPERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT -DPERL_IMPLICIT_SYS -DPERL_
+MSVCRT_READFIX  -I"D:\Perl\lib\CORE"  D:\Perl\lib\CORE\perl56.lib -o 
+interp.exe interp.c

interp.c


# no messages, no errors, so let's test it......


C:\>interp.exe
print "Hello World! It will work if you try hard enough.....\n";
^D
Hello World! It will work if you try hard enough.....

C:\>


# the bare minimum I needed to get a compile is this

C:\>cl.exe -DWIN32 -I"D:\Perl\lib\CORE" D:\Perl\lib\CORE\perl56.lib -o
+ interp.exe interp.c

Microsoft (R) 32-bit C/C++ Standard Compiler Version 13.00.9466 for 80
+x86
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1984-2001. All rights reserved.

interp.c
Microsoft (R) Incremental Linker Version 7.00.9466
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

/out:interp.exe
/out:interp.exe
D:\Perl\lib\CORE\perl56.lib
interp.obj

C:\>interp.exe
print "japh!\n";
^D
japh!

C:\>
[download]

With all due respect the question was not related to cl.exe or using Microsoft Visual Studio tools it was about compiling an exe with a perl interpreter embedded with the Borland C++ Free Command Line tools. It may work with cl.exe but not all of us have access to Visual Studio.

In order to help I went and downloaded Perl 5.8.5 stable.tar.gz and compiled it with the Borland C++ Free Command Line tools with the help of the documentation in README.win32. That was mostly ok except the reliance on rcl.exe was not mentioned in README.win32 as far as I can tell. This tool can be obtained in the MS Platform SDK and seems to be in Visual Studio.NET and Microsoft VB 6 (98)

When I went to compile the authors code I still had problems. Even making sure that I checked the build options with

C:\>perl -MExtUtils::Embed -e ccopts -e ldopts
-tWD  -L"c:\perl\lib\CORE"  -L"C:\borland\bcc55\lib" -Gn  C:\perl\lib\
+CORE\perl5
8.lib C:\borland\bcc55\lib\import32.lib C:\borland\bcc55\lib\cw32mti.l
+ib
 -O2 -D_RTLDLL -DWIN32 -DHAVE_DES_FCRYPT -D_MT -D__USELOCALES__ -D_WIN
+32_WINNT=0
x0410 -DPERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT -DPERL_IMPLICIT_SYS  -I"C:\perl\lib\CORE
+"
C:\>
[download]

Now the -Gn option gives an error so I removed that but I get the following still when I compile

C:\>bcc32 -tWD  -Ic:\perl\lib\core -L"c:\perl\lib\CORE"  -L"C:\borland
+\bcc55\lib
"  C:\perl\lib\CORE\perl58.lib C:\borland\bcc55\lib\import32.lib C:\bo
+rland\bcc5
5\lib\cw32mti.lib perl_inc.c
Borland C++ 5.5.1 for Win32 Copyright (c) 1993, 2000 Borland
perl_inc.c:
Error E2303 c:\perl\lib\core\win32.h 312: Type name expected
Error E2293 c:\perl\lib\core\win32.h 411: ) expected
Error E2293 c:\perl\lib\core\perlio.h 105: ) expected
Error E2293 c:\perl\lib\core\perlio.h 106: ) expected
Error E2293 c:\perl\lib\core\perlio.h 108: ) expected
Error E2293 c:\perl\lib\core\perlio.h 110: ) expected
Error E2141 c:\perl\lib\core\perlio.h 111: Declaration syntax error
Error E2293 c:\perl\lib\core\perlio.h 112: ) expected
Error E2293 c:\perl\lib\core\perlio.h 214: ) expected
Error E2293 c:\perl\lib\core\perlio.h 227: ) expected
Error E2303 c:\perl\lib\core\perlio.h 339: Type name expected
Error E2303 c:\perl\lib\core\perlio.h 342: Type name expected
Error E2293 c:\perl\lib\core\perlio.h 345: ) expected
Error E2293 c:\perl\lib\core\perlio.h 354: ) expected
Error E2293 c:\perl\lib\core\perlio.h 358: ) expected
Error E2293 c:\perl\lib\core\perlio.h 365: ) expected
Error E2293 c:\perl\lib\core\perlio.h 370: ) expected
Error E2303 c:\perl\lib\core\win32iop.h 73: Type name expected
Error E2303 c:\perl\lib\core\win32iop.h 74: Type name expected
Error E2303 c:\perl\lib\core\win32iop.h 77: Type name expected
Error E2303 c:\perl\lib\core\win32iop.h 133: Type name expected
Error E2238 c:\perl\lib\core\perl.h 1775: Multiple declaration for 'AV
+'
Warning W8017 c:\perl\lib\core\dosish.h 142: Redefinition of 'Stat' is
+ not identical
Error E2257 c:\perl\lib\core\perl.h 2074: , expected
Error E2257 c:\perl\lib\core\perl.h 2075: , expected
Error E2257 c:\perl\lib\core\perl.h 2076: , expected
Error E2228 c:\perl\lib\core\perl.h 2076: Too many error or warning me
+ssages
*** 26 errors in Compile ***
[download]

Now I am tired but I cursory look into 'c:\perl\lib\core\win32.h' didn't reveal anything blatantly erroneous but I could be wrong. I also know that the authors code should work because you have tested it with Visual Studio and I tested it on FreeBSD 4.8-STABLE with perl 5.8.3. So maybe there is breakage in building with Borland bcc32.exe? I beleive bcc32.exe is a compiler that "is supported" for building perl.

You will note however that the errors that I get are very similar if not the same as what Nalina was getting

Actually my suggestion to use cl.exe is possibly valid, but simply based on the fact that IMHO it works better so I use it. With cl.exe come the header and library files you need to link apps under windows. These are of course the M$ versions. When you get BCC you get Borlands take on these files, which IME have issues. Windows has issues period, but you get less using the M$ native compiler, headers and libs.

*However* if you had read my post properly you would have noted that the minimum flags case includes -DWIN32 which you fail to do......if I leave it out it chokes as we will be trying to compile non win32 code (well skipping the kludges - or whatever). The errors are slightly different but I suggest it might work if you add that define.

Read more... (3 kB)

May I suggest for next time that you don't copy the headers you add the 'C:\perl\lib\core' to the commandline. There should be a commandline switch for bcc32 to add directories for the compiler to find .h files not in the standard include directory 'c:\Borland\Bcc55\include\'.

From here

To add include directories,
you need to specify   -I"<directory>;<directory>."