I'm sorry but I think the proposed @INC et al changes look much too scary to go into 5.8.0. Maybe they can go into MacPerl 5.8.0 (which will happen somewhere between mainline 5.8.0 and mainline 5.8.1, I guess.)
-- $jhi++; # http://www.iki.fi/jhi/ # There is this special biologist word we use for 'stable'. # It is 'dead'. -- Jack Cohen