I wish someone with the required skill would create a Perl-centric Linux Live CD. Something with several versions of Perl, tons of CPAN modules, some IDE like Eclipse/EPIC, lots of sample code, links to websites, a few HTML pages that explain how to access it all, etc.

Something with several versions of Perl

Yes, it would be nice to have several versions of Perl around, just to experiment with them.

tons of CPAN modules

You would probably need more than a single CD for that. Even CPAN::Mini creates a minimalist mirror of the CPAN that has over 440Mb ATM.

some IDE like Eclipse/EPIC

I disagree with this one... but that's me :-) YMMV :-)

lots of sample code

Er... OK, but this probably wouldn't be easy to come by, unless of course we'd choose a section of perlmonks and copy-paste it there, or something (you'd get the comments, which could be good).

links to websites

Sounds like a nice idea, yes.

a few HTML pages that explain how to access it all, etc.

Actually, I think this might be a very good idea... Do I see anyone volunteering? O:-)

We were thinking of getting a company to sponsor some CPAN cds for YAPC::EU::2005. Perhaps a small team could assemble a bunch of useful stuff and, provided we do get a company to support it, we could hand those cds over (not only to conference atendees, of course).

If you really want that, you can just install perl 5.8.6 on the knoppix system before installing the modules. Compiling perl is fast enough with today's machines. The only problem is space, you might not have enough memory to store the whole build and install tree of perl in addition to the memory you'd need for the live system and the crunching anyway. In that case, you'll either have to create a swap file for the live system (so that the ram file system it uses can grow in the swap), or build and install perl on a harddisk filesystem.

As an info, the build tree of perl 5.8.6 is 103 M, the install tree is 45M on my machine. The recommended amount of memory for knoppix is 82 M if you start X, 20 M if you start text mode only.

I've checked gentoo (not a live system, but a normal distrib), and they only have 5.8.4 yet.

As a sidenote: you could try installing activeperl on your windows box. It's not difficult.

Ambrus

Thanks for the reply. I might look into compiling perl onto a RAM drive etc, as I have 512MB on this unit.
I know I could install activeperl, in fact I've got Cygwin running on one of the boxes, but I'd like to be able to just put cds in say 5 machines and have them crunch away and them I can just reboot in the morning and the boxes are none the worse for the experience albeit a little warmer =P. I'm sure I'll squeeze a bit extra out of them running text mode linux as opposed to Cygwin/Active perl on windows.

Regards Paul

As a side note ... I'm actually installing gentoo on a box right now, and, according to emerge --pretend, it's about to install perl 5.8.5. I'm most definitely going to install a newer version as soon as it's all running. In, oh, a week or so. ;-)

Still not the OP's 5.8.6 requirement, but a bit better.

only ships with Perl 5.8.4 and the modules I want to install rely on 5.8.6

I've checked, and neither Heap nor Graph have perl 5.8.6 as a requirement, so 5.8.4 should suit you fine.