>On the GNU ftp site, it's got:
>
>	-r--r--r--  1 root     system     586178 Feb  7  1993 perl-4.036.tar.gz
>	-r--r--r--  1 root     system    2581811 Nov 11  1997 perl-5.004_04.tar.gz
>	-r--r--r--  1 root     system    3431570 Jul 28  1998 perl-5.005.01.tar.gz
>	-r--r--r--  1 root     system    3491732 Sep 28  1998 perl-5.005.02.tar.gz

heh.  they're missing perl5.005_03.  :)

>Aren't odd perl minor numbers "pre-release" releases?  So, 5.004_04
>would be the latest "released" version, and 5.005.02 the latest
>"pre-release" version?

no...you're confusing perl with linux again.  :P

in perl parlance, the latest real (stable?) release is _03.  the
latest devel (or testing or beta or whatever) release is _60.  the
devel releases are always numbered from 50 and up.

as for newness...the devel releases will *always* contain new and
exciting features that might crash.  or go away later.  perl 5.005 on
the whole contains a number of cool things not found in 5.004.

 * zero-width negative lookback assertions
 * pseudo function prototyping
 * the INIT block, akin to BEGIN and END, but different
 * more goofy regular expression magic than i'll ever use
 * a perl pseudo-compiler (emits c or binary output)
 * a parse tree printer
 * even more standard modules

so...depending on your point of view, the new perl might be a good
thing.

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