Hi pc88mxer, thanks for the info. In fact, a few minutes ago I did an

apt-get install libsdl-perl
[download]

(for Xandros), downloaded the Perl Hacks book code and got the sdl_animation.pl program running. So I guess this counts as a partial success.

In any case I would be very interested in alternatives. Are there any simpler solutions if I just need to draw some primitives using a few colors and have a decent animation?