2. Since I plan to install MinGW on my own, should I do so before running cpan or are the two MinGWs different?

I have installed MinGW before trying to use cpan (I used it to compile perl), and cpan never tried to install MinGW for me. I mostly use cpanp.

3. The MinGW I install will have make; will cpan still want to install dmake?

If you're compiling your own perl for win32, or you're using ActivePerl, you will use nmake or dmake, never make 

perl -V:make

[download]
You can override make choice at runtime using 
perl Makefile.PL make=make
perl Makefile.PL make=nmake
perl Makefile.PL make=dmake

[download]
dmake is preferred.

4. Regarding the broken links provided by ppm, what is the proper links?

dmake is distributed on cpan, dmake/MinGW by ActiveState, both come with http://strawberryperl.com/

http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake/ (http://search.cpan.org/dist/dmake-4.12-20090907-SHAY/, http://search.cpan.org/~shay/dmake-4.12-20090907-SHAY/ )

http://ppm4.activestate.com/author/MINGW.html

In reply to Re: The MinGW and dmake cpan starts to install by Anonymous Monk
in thread The MinGW and dmake cpan starts to install by sg

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