Would installing Perl 5.8.x or 5.10.x make a big impact on how my code runs if it was developed in 5.6.x?

Question

What are the impacts (If any) by developing code in Perl 5.6.1 but running the code in Perl 5.8.x or 5.10.x?

I'm using these modules:

(For Linux)
HTTP::Request
HTTP::Response
LWP::UserAgent
Unicode::String
XML::DOM
DateTime::Format::DateManip

(For Windows)

Unicode-String
XML-DOM
DateTime-Format-DateManip (Haven't installed this yet on Windows, still looking for package)

Answer 1

The release notes for each version of Perl contain good summaries of all the important differences from the prior version. See, for example

perl58delta

perl581delta

perl5100delta

Answer 2

Try it and find out. You can install multiple perls at the same time with them interfering with each other. Test your code with the different versions and see what happens. If everything blows up, you still have the original perl around.

See the answers to How should I install more than one version of Perl?

Answer 3

These are fairly standard modules... I wouldn't expect many problems. In general Perl is mature enough that you can assume backwards compatibility. But you can't know it for sure until you try :)