All I have to say is, I know your pain. You need to upgrade to perl 5.005_x first off. If you are lucky, croak will work. If not, uninstall perl and reinstall it again (don't use a binary image, the os is too sensitive to handle it). I know it sounds strange, but I have c code that I've compiled on the same box, same libs, and same directory (nothing changed) that produced different excutables. As for developing on a sco box, just install your shell, bash/ksh/csh/sh are all ported to sco. Just remember you probably have limited licences, so don't open too may telnet connections ; )