While I've never personally run into that problem, i'd like to remind you not to forget that ppm(or ppm3) is merely a frontend to the PPM module, and you're a perl programmer ain't you? ;)

use PPM;
use Data::Dumper;
my $lookFor = qr/Acme/i;
my $rep = q[http://ppm.ActiveState.com/cgibin/PPM/ppmserver.pl?urn:/PP
+MServer];
my(undef,$packagelist) = PPM::RepositoryPackages(location=>$rep);

#warn Dumper($ppp);

for my $p( grep /^$lookFor/, @$packagelist ) {
    print "Do you want to install $p? [y/N] ";
    my $a = <STDIN>;
    if($a =~ /y/i) {
       PPM::InstallPackage(package=> $p, location => $rep )
    }
}
__END__
[download]

update: so uncomment the line #use Data::Dumper *sheesh*

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** The Third rule of perl club is a statement of fact: pod is sexy.