>Q1: How badly is this decision likely hurt me? (Some reading reveals >that OS X already depends on its own perl installation, so if users >screw it up they will have bigger problems than my app not working.)
If your Perl script is native perl, ie., it doesn't utilize XS modules (like Compress::Zlib, HTML::Parser, XML::Parser), then a user changing the underlying version of Perl should not have any dastardly affect. If, however, you are using XS modules (and you ship them with your application), then differing Perl versions will cause issues (ie., your script won't run).
>Q2: Is there in fact a good solution for bundling my scripts, a perl >interpreter, and all required modules/libraries into a single >app/bundle/whatever in such a way that I do not need to depend on the >version provided by the OS?
With OS X, none that I'm currently aware. You may want to look into a Cocoa "wrapper" around your application, which I use for my AmphetaDesk [1]. This wrapper packages ALL the modules that are not part of a stock Perl, as well as the XS and supporting libraries. In my case, I ship a compiled-for-OS X expat and matching XML::Parser, along with a number of other non-default modules. Doing a wrapper gives you some benefit in regards to providing a GUI for your users, as well as making the installation easier (since you don't have to worry about non-stock modules being installed through CPAN, etc.). The downside is, as mentioned above, it would fail if someone with Perl 5.8.0 on their OS X box used it (since the bundled XS libraries are incompatible with the newer Perl).
I've yet to look into perlcc under OS X - which may or may not be applicable in this case. Has anyone else?
>Q3: In my younger and foolish days (about three weeks ago), I munged >the perl installation on my development machine (or rather, perl >-MCPAN munged it for me). How can I get back the exact perl setup >that comes preinstalled with OS X? I suppose I can wipe and reinstall >the disk if necessary, but I imagine there is a better way.
Besides a full reinstall, you could look into extracting the files from your OS X CDs. There's a utility to do so on versiontracker.com somewhere (who's name I can't remember - searching for "package" may help).
[1] http://disobey.com/amphetadesk/
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