in reply to Howto implement versions of object instances

How about the Factory Pattern?

Factory.pm

package Factory; use base qw( Class::Factory ); use Module_1; use Module_2; __PACKAGE__->add_factory_type('1.0' => 'Module_1'); __PACKAGE__->add_factory_type('2.0' => 'Module_2'); 1;
Module_1.pm
package Module_1; sub new { bless {}, shift } sub init { shift } sub version { '1.0' } 1;
Module_2.pm
package Module_2; sub new { bless {}, shift } sub init { shift } sub version { '2.0' } 1;
And the driver:
#!/usr/bin/perl -l use Factory; print $_->version for Factory->new('1.0'), Factory->new('2.0'), ;

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)