Do you have a program called cl.exe in your path? It's the MSVS compiler.

Did you read makefile.mk?

#
# uncomment exactly one of the following
#
# Visual C++ 2.x
#CCTYPE        *= MSVC20
# Visual C++ > 2.x and < 6.x
#CCTYPE        *= MSVC
# Visual C++ >= 6.x
CCTYPE        *= MSVC60
# Borland 5.02 or later
#CCTYPE        *= BORLAND
# mingw32+gcc-2.95.2 or better
#CCTYPE        *= GCC
[download]

You can get a free compiler from borland.com.

update: Re: Compiling 5.8.0 on Win2K -- you can always get a precompiled binary from ActiveState.com.

MJD says you can't just make shit up and expect the computer to know what you mean, retardo! I run a Win32 PPM repository for perl 5.6x+5.8x. I take requests. ** The Third rule of perl club is a statement of fact: pod is sexy.