Old DBI versions require Perl 5.8.1?

Beausoleil has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I see that V5.6.1 is the stable version of Perl. I want to use a version of DBI that will work with this version. However, when I try to install an older version of DBI from the CPAN archives I get an error message that says it requires Perl 5.8.1 which just came out. What's up with that?? Why would older versions of the DBI mods require the latest unstable version of Perl? Did I miss something?

Comment on Old DBI versions require Perl 5.8.1?

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Re: Old DBI versions require Perl 5.8.1? by dave_the_m (Monsignor) on Apr 23, 2013 at 22:39 UTC
perl 5.6.1 was released 12 years ago. perl 5.8.1 was released 10 years ago. perl 5.16.3 is the current stable release. perl 5.18.0 will be released in 2 month's time, approx. Dave.	[reply]
Re: Old DBI versions require Perl 5.8.1? by ksublondie (Friar) on Apr 23, 2013 at 21:11 UTC
According to http://www.perl.org/get.html: "...We recommend that you always run the latest stable version, currently 5.16.3. If you're running a version older than 5.8.3, you may find that the latest version of CPAN modules will not work..."	[reply]
Re: Old DBI versions require Perl 5.8.1? by toolic (Bishop) on Apr 23, 2013 at 21:01 UTC
Side comment: I wonder if you mean v5.16.1, not v5.6.1. Same for 5.18.1 vs. 5.8.1 (although I don't notice 5.18 anywhere yet).	[reply]
Re^2: Old DBI versions require Perl 5.8.1? by Beausoleil (Initiate) on Apr 24, 2013 at 16:40 UTC
Doh! You absolutely right, toolic. In one of my perl searches on the web I saw a site that announced Perl 5.8. I assumed that this was new but is, in fact, really old. Thanks for pointing that out. In addition, apparently my bifocals need an upgrade since I missed the 5.16 vs 5.6. Ai yi yi! I do have 5.6 on my workstation. I will start over. When I have something intelligent to say I'll get back to you. I am really new (obviously) to Perl and DBI. I need to get acclimated.	[reply]
Re^2: Old DBI versions require Perl 5.8.1? by Beausoleil (Initiate) on Apr 24, 2013 at 14:55 UTC
I did mean 5.6.1. That was a typo. Thanks for checking.	[reply]
Re: Old DBI versions require Perl 5.8.1? by DrHyde (Prior) on Apr 24, 2013 at 11:08 UTC
If you really do need to use perl 5.6.1, then try using CP5.6.1AN. That will only give you versions of distributions that have passed their tests on perl 5.6.1. You may still have trouble building some of them though, as third-party libraries that they depend on, header files, and even compilers may no longer be compatible with such ancient code.	[reply]