Can someone "disambiguate" this article for me please?
I'll try. I think you'll recall that this has come up before, so you may want to take a look in the archives.
http://developer.apple.com/internet/opensource/perl.html
Consider this article to be old enough to be reference only, by the way.
I'm not up to a point-counterpoint today, I guess, so I'll just snip the rest of this and wing it.
You can have more than one version of perl installed. In fact, it is generally recommended to do so. Most Unix systems make heavy use of the perl that is installed with the system, so if you upgrade perl underneath the system you risk confusing the system. And if you upgrade from 5.6 to 5.8, you'll have to make sure all the binary modules the system has installed (and all the binary modules you installed) are re-compiled.
It's a lot easier to manage (and therefore a bit more secure) if you don't have to worry about effects on the system when you upgrade and add modules to the copy of perl you're using for non-system stuff.
5.8 is recommended for a number of reasons. (More complete Unicode support is a big reason in my case.)
So, when the installer asks where to install it, tell it to install in /usr/local (or wherever you keep the non-system stuff you install for all users).
You will have to edit the first line of _your_ scripts (not the system's) to
#! /usr/local/bin/perl
and remember to invoke the right CPAN, and such things, which can be a little confusing.
There is a way to get a list, but I don't remember it, and javadoc seems to be interfering with my memory of perldoc right now. Maybe someone can help me here?
--
Joel Rees
Nothing to say today
so I'll say nothing:
Nothing.