fields.pm and restricted-hashes: Why wait for perl 5.9.0?

[olafinsbraaten]

Hi,

I have some modules that use fields.pm (INST_VERSION 2.03) on perl
5.8.0, linux 2.4, i386.

I get repeated warnings that "Pseudo-hashes are deprecated", which is
fine, I asked for it ("use warnings"). I also know the the warnings
can be disabled by 'no warnings "deprecated"'.

perldoc fields says:

perl before 5.9.0: fields::new() creates and blesses a pseudohash [..]
perl 5.9.0 and higher: fields::new() creates and blesses a
restricted-hash [..]

Is there a good reason why fields.pm does not use restricted-hash in
perl 5.8? Why wait for perl 5.9.0? Are there incompatible changes
between the two?

What's the risk of using restricted-hashes in perl 5.8.0?

/usr/lib/perl5/5.8.0/fields.pm
113c113
< if ($] < 5.009) {
---

if ($] < 5.008) {

--

(BTW: Links to perl590delta/perl591delta on
http://search.cpan.org/dist/perl/pod/perl.pod -> "Not found")

--