There is a PPM package on CPAN that could be used. However, this is quite old (version 2)...

I just gave that a try on my MinGW-built perl 5.8.8. Things like 'ppm help' and the various 'ppm set' commands work fine. And the interactive shell is available and functional ... but:

D:\comp58_M\PPM-2.1.7>ppm install Math::FFT
Installing package 'Math-FFT'...
Element 'IMPLEMENTATION' cannot contain a child element 'PROVIDE' at D
+:/perl58_M/site/5.8.8/lib/PPM.pm line 1658.
Can't locate object method "rvalidate" via package "PPM::XML::PPD::PRO
+VIDE" at D:/perl58_M/site/5.8.8/lib/PPM/XML/ValidatingElement.pm line
+ 38.
[download]

I guess that's something that's in the ppd file (since "PROVIDE" does not occur anywhere in the PPM-2.1.7 source). I'd take a look if I could remember just where the hell they hide their ppd files. Somebody gave me the link a while back, but I'm damned if I can now find it.

That was actually a good, simple, easy-to-use version of ppm. (I now recall that I've used it before.) But if they've taken to writing ppd files that it can't handle, then it's not much use .....

I think it will work ok with the uwinnipeg repository, as (all of ?) the ppd files there don't contain a "PROVIDE" child element in the "IMPLEMENTATION" element. I was about to test that out, when the uwinnipeg site apparently went down. (Hope it wasn't something I did :-)

Cheers,
Rob

Update:
I must be drunker than I thought. I finally found the ActiveState ppd files at http://ppm.activestate.com/PPMPackages/5.8-windows/ and, sure enough, the "IMPLEMENTATION" element includes a "PROVIDE NAME" child element (which I took to be the cause of the problem). I'm still unable to get to the ppd files at the uwinnipeg repository, but I was able to get to the bribes repository, so I (successfully) installed a ppm from there. Specifically, I (succesfully) ran:

ppm install http://www.bribes.org/perl/ppm/Digest-Whirlpool.ppd

That proves that it's the AS ppd files that are the cause of the problem ... right ??
Nope ... I also tried:

ppm install http://www.bribes.org/perl/ppm/DateTime.ppd

but that produced a heap of warnings about the child element "PROVIDE", followed by the same fatal error that I got from the AS ppd files. Thing is, that if you go to http://www.bribes.org/perl/ppm/DateTime.ppd and view the source of that page, you'll plainly see that the string "PROVIDE" does not occur at all. At this point I'm unsure as to whether I need to drink more, or drink less. All I really know for sure is that I'm bloody glad I don't have to rely on PPM.