I'm trying to figure out exactly what Windows you're targetting where 2MB of disk space or 16MB of RAM is significant.

By its nature, perl uses more memory for the same work than, say, C. This is to allow the dynamic use where strings and numbers end up being the same thing as references, tied variables, etc. Each variable will have certain overhead to allow this. It's not the end of the world.

Then you use a bunch of Win32 modules - these will load additional Win32 DLLs into your perl programspace. But they aren't actually using additional memory - that same memory is being mapped into every process that uses those DLLs. And that would include the program that runs as your desktop.

Personally, I only care about memory when AIX tells me I've run out. And then I just tell AIX to shut up by resetting my ulimit ;-)