I think it would be reasonable to ask your host to upgrade. If they refuse, consider a new host. Installing a local version of perl and then all the modules you might want to have available might turn out to be a hassle depending on how things are configured on the server you are on, how much disk you are allotted, and that kind of thing. If you really want more control, get a dedicated server (real or virtual) with root access and then install whatever you want.

Update: Regardless of your host, maybe you should consider installing Linux on a local machine? Either as dual-boot or on an old box. (Linux will run on just about any old machine.) If you can do that, it'll probably prove to be a much better platform to learn on than a shell account on a shared server.

-sauoq
"My two cents aren't worth a dime.";

But I can't install cpanplus, because my hosters are on perl 5.8.0 and you need at least 5.8.1 for cpanplus.

name: CPANPLUS
version: 0.0562
abstract: Ameliorated interface to the CPAN
author: Jos Boumans <kane@cpan.org>
license: perl
distribution_type: module
requires:
  perl: 5.6.1
no_index:
  directory:
    - lib/CPANPLUS/inc
    - inc
generated_by: Module::Install version 0.36

Thanks Podmaster. I see now the problem is 5.8.0 on redhat, something I probably should have mentioned in the initial post. This is the first time I've had such an involved install in a unix environment.

From the makefile:

### there's issues with redhat 9.0's stock perl -- they applied some
### custom patches on their 5.8.0 and it breaks use constant a => sub 
+{};
if( $^O eq 'linux' and -e '/etc/redhat-release' and 
    $] == '5.008' and (grep /Red Hat, Inc/, values %Config::Config)
) {
    print loc("
### IMPORTANT! ######################################################

You are using perl $] supplied by RedHat, who have applied custom
patches that break various perl modules, including this one.

You will have to migrate to a perl without these flaws. You could
do this for example by building a perl installation by hand. 
You can obtain the sources from www.cpan.org.

We're sorry for the inconvenience.

#####################################################################

    ") . $/;

    require 5.008001;
}
[download]

I wonder if this will cause other problems that would leave me better off developing somewhere else if the hosters won't upgrade, or if it's no big deal. (For all I know there could be other problems with a fresher version.) For now I am going to try installing catalyst without cpanplus.

Another option to consider is using PAR to build your Catalyst application locally, with your favourite version of perl (5.8.7), and uploading your scripts as an executable. This also avoids the hoster's module version dependency nightmare.

Until recently, part of tasks was taking care of a herd of webservers. Were customers allowed to install software and run it outside the installed webserver? Some of them. Others certainly not. Would I install a specific version of perl (or something else) for them? Again, for some I would. For others, only after they upgraded their contract.

See, if your website is one of fifty all running from the same Apache and all you pay for is static webpages, PHP, mod_perl and a small database, you're not getting a different version of Perl. But if you're paying for your own (hardware) domain on one of the big boxes, things can be arranged.