I just installed perl on this laptop (Win XP, ActiveState perl), and tried: 
C:\>perldoc
Perl lib version (v5.8.3) doesn't match executable version (v5.8.7) at
+ C:\ora10\perl\5.8.3\lib/MSWin32-x86-mul
ti-thread/Config.pm line 32.
Compilation failed in require at C:\ora10\perl\5.8.3\lib/Pod/Perldoc.p
+m line 7.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at C:\ora10\perl\5.8.3\lib/Pod/Perld
+oc.pm line 7.
Compilation failed in require at C:\Perl\bin\perldoc.bat line 22.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at C:\Perl\bin\perldoc.bat line 22.

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I fixed this by appending an underscore to the directory C:\ora10\perl, but I am curious about why this happened. I am not finding perldoc.bat very enlightening; here is the vicinity of the offending line ("use POD::Perldoc"): 
# This "perldoc" file was generated by "perldoc.PL"

require 5;
BEGIN { $^W = 1 if $ENV{'PERLDOCDEBUG'} }
use Pod::Perldoc;
exit( Pod::Perldoc->run() );


__END__
:endofperl

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There are various oracle services running, though perl is now at the head of my PATH as I just installed it.

any light to shed?

In reply to Oracle Activestate, and perldoc prob by jjohhn

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