You should at least take a look at Apache::Reload. It only requires a small change to the modules in question... Changing the .pl files was a solution to a special case, and wouln't necessarily need to be done.

That said, I think you're fooling yourselef if you think developing in a 'MaxRequestsPerChild=1' environment is a good idea. Almost all the mod_perl related bugs have to do with the persistant nature of your code -- the fact that a single binary is running multiple scripts multiple times is being glossed over in your development environment.

I would recommend keeping your development environment as similiar to your production environment as possible. MaxRequests=1 vs MaxRequest=alot is a *huge* difference that can cause you troubles down the road.

-Blake