Are the commands/flags used the same?

I don't think there's any significant difference between my build of perl (using MSVC++ 7.0) and ActivePerl. Here's my 'perl -V':

Summary of my perl5 (revision 5 version 10 subversion 0) configuration
+:
  Platform:
    osname=MSWin32, osvers=6.0, archname=MSWin32-x86-multi-thread
    uname=''
    config_args='undef'
    hint=recommended, useposix=true, d_sigaction=undef
    useithreads=define, usemultiplicity=define
    useperlio=define, d_sfio=undef, uselargefiles=define, usesocks=und
+ef
    use64bitint=undef, use64bitall=undef, uselongdouble=undef
    usemymalloc=n, bincompat5005=undef
  Compiler:
    cc='cl', ccflags ='-nologo -GF -W3 -MD -Zi -DNDEBUG -O1 -DWIN32 -D
+_CONSOLE
DNO_STRICT -DHAVE_DES_FCRYPT  -DPERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT -DPERL_IMPLICIT_
+SYS -DUSE
PERLIO',
    optimize='-MD -Zi -DNDEBUG -O1',
    cppflags='-DWIN32'
    ccversion='13.00.9466', gccversion='', gccosandvers=''
    intsize=4, longsize=4, ptrsize=4, doublesize=8, byteorder=1234
    d_longlong=undef, longlongsize=8, d_longdbl=define, longdblsize=10
    ivtype='long', ivsize=4, nvtype='double', nvsize=8, Off_t='__int64
+', lseeks
ze=8
    alignbytes=8, prototype=define
  Linker and Libraries:
    ld='link', ldflags ='-nologo -nodefaultlib -debug -opt:ref,icf  -l
+ibpath:"c
\_32\perl_vc7\5.10.0\lib\CORE"  -machine:x86'
    libpth=C:\vsnet\VC7\lib
    libs=  oldnames.lib kernel32.lib user32.lib gdi32.lib winspool.lib
+  comdlg3
.lib advapi32.lib shell32.lib ole32.lib oleaut32.lib  netapi32.lib uui
+d.lib ws2
32.lib mpr.lib winmm.lib  version.lib odbc32.lib odbccp32.lib msvcrt.l
+ib
    perllibs=  oldnames.lib kernel32.lib user32.lib gdi32.lib winspool
+.lib  com
lg32.lib advapi32.lib shell32.lib ole32.lib oleaut32.lib  netapi32.lib
+ uuid.lib
ws2_32.lib mpr.lib winmm.lib  version.lib odbc32.lib odbccp32.lib msvc
+rt.lib
    libc=msvcrt.lib, so=dll, useshrplib=true, libperl=perl510.lib
    gnulibc_version=''
  Dynamic Linking:
    dlsrc=dl_win32.xs, dlext=dll, d_dlsymun=undef, ccdlflags=' '
    cccdlflags=' ', lddlflags='-dll -nologo -nodefaultlib -debug -opt:
+ref,icf
libpath:"c:\_32\perl_vc7\5.10.0\lib\CORE"  -machine:x86'


Characteristics of this binary (from libperl):
  Compile-time options: MULTIPLICITY PERL_DONT_CREATE_GVSV
                        PERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT PERL_IMPLICIT_SYS
                        PERL_MALLOC_WRAP PL_OP_SLAB_ALLOC USE_ITHREADS
                        USE_LARGE_FILES USE_PERLIO
  Built under MSWin32
  Compiled at Nov  6 2008 22:28:28
  @INC:
    C:/_32/perl_vc7/5.10.0/lib
    C:/_32/perl_vc7/site/5.10.0/lib
    .
[download]

Cheers,
Rob