[Catalyst] A note on AS Perl 5.8.8 install problems with Catalyst and other modules

[Thomas L. Shinnick]

I wanted to post a note on a problem and a workaround, for those 
installing Catalyst under ActiveState's latest release of Perl 5.8.8 
on Windows.

Several module installations, including Catalyst 5.66, are receiving the error:
     Undefined subroutine &ActivePerl::Config::find_prog called at 
C:/Perl588/site/lib/ActivePerl/Config.pm line 70.
     Compilation failed in require at 
C:/Perl588/lib/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm line 7.

This occurs when running under CPAN and also when manually running
     perl Makefile.PL

The workaround, very strangely, is to run in debug mode.  Manually 
download the module's tar.gz, unpack it as usual, and then run the 
first install step in debug mode, thusly:
     perl -wd Makefile.PL
Type 'c' to run the script that creates the makefile, and then end 
the script with 'q'.  Then continue the install by running
     nmake
     nmake test
     nmake install
as normally.

I have no explanation why the problem occurs, or why this workaround works.

I _have_ verified that a new (re)installation of AS 5.8.8 build 816 
has this problem and that the workaround enables you to get past this point.



-- 
I'm a pessimist about probabilities; I'm an optimist about possibilities.
     Lewis Mumford  (1895-1990)