There is a perldelta included in every recent perl release (since at least 5.004) summing up the differences with the previous versions.

However, the fact that you have to ask here for reasons seems to be you don't have a cause. Either you have a reason for installing 5.8.3 over 5.6.1 (and then you don't need to ask here), or you don't, in which case it doesn't matter if 5.6.1 gets installed.

I did not recommend that 5.8.4 be installed because I had read somewhere that even-number versions of Perl are somewhat experimental.
That's odd major numbers (the second number). That is, the second number. 5.7.x are development releases, and so are 5.9.x. 5.6.x and 5.8.x are stable releases.

Abigail

In reply to Re: Perl Version Differences by Abigail-II
in thread Perl Version Differences by xenchu

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