I've done that as well, but if you keep reuse the same shell for a while, switching backwards and forwards, you can run reach the limit of what the shell will allow. And if you compile perl yourself, the paths can be quite long with the default options. I've set up a couple of batch files to call whatever perl I want:

  :: perl580.bat
  @echo off
  d:\dev\perl\5.8.0\bin\MSWin32-x86-multi-thread\perl5.8.0 %*

[download]
> perl561 foo.pl  # runs perl5.6.1
> perl580 foo.pl  # runs perl5.8.0

[download]

I have similar batch files set up for perldoc et al.

-- simonflk

In reply to Re: Re: Using Multiple Versions of ActivePerl by simonflk
in thread Using Multiple Versions of ActivePerl, or I Want to Use ActivePerl 5.8.0 But Not Break My ActivePerl 5.6.0 by ibanix

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.