local isn't deprecated, just misunderstood. =) I have seen occasional calls for a stronger -w that warns of working but deprecated code but I've never seen how it could do more than annoy...

As to documentation, I suppose perldoc perldelta is your best first stop, where to after that is a little fuzzy to me too. =)

--
$you = new YOU;
honk() if $you->love(perl)