That would require administrative privileges on a processor used by hundreds of people for software development on many different programs. Upgrading is out of the question. It would require an Engineering Analysis, and a likely upgrade of many many scripts, costing our customers in excess of a few hundred thousand dollars. Something tells me that they wouldn't go for that.

The good news is that we are upgrading to the newfangled AIX 5, which comes with a fancy-dancy Perl 5.8.3. It should take no more than 3 more years.