I don't. I'm providing service, not software as such. The machines I'm working on are the customers own machines, running AIX.

I don't think you have made any points against XS, and I doubt if module writers are going to go through the hassle of making "special pure perl ports" of their XS-based modules, just so a few people can avoid the hassle of installing a C compiler on their platform(Well maybe if you pay them).

I didn't set out to 'make points against XS', I set out to start a discussion (and post an ecclesiastical history joke). I said in the OP that XS causes me pain, and it does. I also said that it would be nice to have pure perl alternatives even if I have to write them myself.

Also what puzzles me, if you advertise your services, to support AIX, why don't YOU buy a compiler for AIX, and compile the XS modules for your AIX customers?

As above, I don't 'advertise my services to support AIX'. I happen to be working on AIX at the moment, because that's what the project I'm working on uses. On the last project it was Win2k, before that a mixture of RedHat & WinNT, before that (etc etc etc). I use perl to automate support tasks & provide glue code between data sources - not as a language to write shrink wrapped apps in. Just as TIMTOWTDI, TIMTOUFP: There Is More Than One Use For Perl.