If you are a new to Modern Perl (like me) then i suggest you start using perlbrew with cpanm. that way when you are working on x version of perl on your *nix system, ideally your perldoc looks at the x version of the documentation. (i tested this just now using perlrew :D for your benefit).
The temporal difficulty with perl is u need to know C well to know the awesome.else u just keep *using* it and writing inefficient code