in reply to Oracle Activestate, and perldoc prob

When you type perldoc you're really executing perldoc.bat, which looks like
@rem = '--*-Perl-*-- @echo off if "%OS%" == "Windows_NT" goto WinNT perl -x -S "%0" %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9 goto endofperl :WinNT perl -x -S %0 %*
So the first perl.exe that is found first in your %PATH% (v5.8.7) is what gets executed (even if perldoc.bat belongs to the v5.8.3 perl), but at the same time, through win32 specific magic, C:\ora10\perl\5.8.3\lib/MSWin32-x86-multi-thread/ get added to the top of @INC, so when perldoc uses Config, Config croaks (correctly) because it doesn't match the perl that's loading it.

MJD says "you can't just make shit up and expect the computer to know what you mean, retardo!"
I run a Win32 PPM repository for perl 5.6.x and 5.8.x -- I take requests (README).
** The third rule of perl club is a statement of fact: pod is sexy.