[inseparable changes from patch from perl5.003_07 to perl5.003_08]

 CORE LANGUAGE CHANGES

Subject: Bitwise op sign rationalization
From: Chip Salzenberg <chip@atlantic.net>
Files: op.c opcode.pl pod/perlop.pod pod/perltoc.pod pp.c pp.h pp_hot.c proto.h sv.c t/op/bop.t

    Make bitwise ops result in unsigned values, unless C<use
    integer> is in effect.  Includes initial support for UVs.

Subject: Defined scoping for C<my> in control structures
From: Chip Salzenberg <chip@atlantic.net>
Files: op.c perly.c perly.c.diff perly.h perly.y proto.h toke.c

    Finally defines semantics of "my" in control expressions,
    like the condition of "if" and "while".  In all cases, scope
    of a "my" var extends to the end of the entire control
    structure.  Also adds new construct "for my", which
    automatically declares the control variable "my" and limits
    its scope to the loop.

Subject: Fix ++/-- after int conversion (e.g. 'printf "%d"')
From: Chip Salzenberg <chip@atlantic.net>
Files: pp.c pp_hot.c sv.c

    This patch makes Perl correctly ignore SvIVX() if either
    NOK or POK is true, since SvIVX() may be a truncated or
    overflowed version of the real value.

Subject: Make code match Camel II re: functions that use $_
From: Paul Marquess <pmarquess@bfsec.bt.co.uk>
Files: opcode.pl

Subject: Provide scalar context on left side of "->"
From: Chip Salzenberg <chip@atlantic.net>
Files: perly.c perly.y

Subject: Quote bearword package/handle FOO in "funcname FOO => 'bar'"
From: Chip Salzenberg <chip@atlantic.net>
Files: toke.c

 OTHER CORE CHANGES

Subject: Warn on overflow of octal and hex integers
From: Chip Salzenberg <chip@atlantic.net>
Files: proto.h toke.c util.c

Subject: If -w active, warn for commas and hashes ('#') in qw()
From: Chip Salzenberg <chip@atlantic.net>
Files: toke.c

Subject: Fixes for pack('w')
From: Ulrich Pfeifer <pfeifer@charly.informatik.uni-dortmund.de>
Files: pp.c t/op/pack.t

Subject: More complete output from sv_dump()
From: Gurusamy Sarathy <gsar@engin.umich.edu>
Files: sv.c

Subject: Major '..' and debugger patches
From: Ilya Zakharevich <ilya@math.ohio-state.edu>
Files: lib/perl5db.pl op.c pp_ctl.c scope.c scope.h

Subject: Fix for formline()
From: Gurusamy Sarathy <gsar@engin.umich.edu>
Files: global.sym mg.c perl.h pod/perldiag.pod pp_ctl.c proto.h sv.c t/op/write.t

Subject: Fix stack botch in untie and binmode
From: Gurusamy Sarathy <gsar@engin.umich.edu>
Files: pp_sys.c

Subject: Complete EMBED, including symbols from interp.sym
From: Chip Salzenberg <chip@atlantic.net>
Files: MANIFEST embed.pl ext/DynaLoader/dlutils.c ext/SDBM_File/sdbm/sdbm.h global.sym handy.h malloc.c perl.h pp_sys.c proto.h regexec.c toke.c util.c x2p/Makefile.SH x2p/a2p.h x2p/handy.h x2p/util.h

    New define EMBEDMYMALLOC makes embedding total by
    avoiding "Mymalloc" etc.

Subject: Support old embedding for people who want it
From: Chip Salzenberg <chip@atlantic.net>
Files: MANIFEST Makefile.SH old_embed.pl old_global.sym

 PORTABILITY

Subject: Miscellaneous VMS fixes
From: Charles Bailey <bailey@HMIVAX.HUMGEN.UPENN.EDU>
Files: lib/ExtUtils/Liblist.pm lib/ExtUtils/MM_VMS.pm lib/Math/Complex.pm lib/Time/Local.pm lib/timelocal.pl perl.h perl_exp.SH proto.h t/TEST t/io/read.t t/lib/findbin.t t/lib/getopt.t util.c utils/h2xs.PL vms/Makefile vms/config.vms vms/descrip.mms vms/ext/Stdio/Stdio.pm vms/ext/Stdio/Stdio.xs vms/perlvms.pod vms/test.com vms/vms.c

Subject: DJGPP patches (MS-DOS)
From: "Douglas E. Wegscheid" <wegscd@whirlpool.com>
Files: doio.c dosish.h ext/SDBM_File/sdbm/sdbm.c handy.h lib/AutoSplit.pm lib/Cwd.pm lib/File/Find.pm malloc.c perl.c perl.h pp_sys.c proto.h sv.c util.c

Subject: Patch to make Perl work under AmigaOS
From: "Norbert Pueschel" <pueschel@imsdd.meb.uni-bonn.de>
Files: MANIFEST hints/amigaos.sh installman lib/File/Basename.pm lib/File/Find.pm pod/pod2man.PL pp_sys.c util.c

5 files changed, 237 insertions, 78 deletions

diff --git a/lib/ExtUtils/Liblist.pm b/lib/ExtUtils/Liblist.pm
index dc8b94334e..eac7c13ad5 100644
--- a/lib/ExtUtils/Liblist.pm
+++ b/lib/ExtUtils/Liblist.pm
@@ -8,9 +8,12 @@ use Config;
 use Cwd 'cwd';
 use File::Basename;
 
-my $Config_libext = $Config{lib_ext} || ".a";
-
 sub ext {
+  if   ($^O eq 'VMS') { return &_vms_ext;      }
+  else                { return &_unix_os2_ext; }
+}
+
+sub _unix_os2_ext {
     my($self,$potential_libs, $Verbose) = @_;
     if ($^O =~ 'os2' and $Config{libs}) { 
 	# Dynamic libraries are not transitive, so we may need including
@@ -24,6 +27,8 @@ sub ext {
 
     my($so)   = $Config{'so'};
     my($libs) = $Config{'libs'};
+    my $Config_libext = $Config{lib_ext} || ".a";
+
 
     # compute $extralibs, $bsloadlibs and $ldloadlibs from
     # $potential_libs
@@ -174,6 +179,136 @@ sub ext {
     ("@extralibs", "@bsloadlibs", "@ldloadlibs",join(":",@ld_run_path));
 }
 
+
+sub _vms_ext {
+  my($self, $potential_libs,$verbose) = @_;
+  return ('', '', '', '') unless $potential_libs;
+
+  my(@dirs,@libs,$dir,$lib,%sh,%olb,%obj);
+  my $cwd = cwd();
+  my($so,$lib_ext,$obj_ext) = @Config{'so','lib_ext','obj_ext'};
+  # List of common Unix library names and there VMS equivalents
+  # (VMS equivalent of '' indicates that the library is automatially
+  # searched by the linker, and should be skipped here.)
+  my %libmap = ( 'm' => '', 'f77' => '', 'F77' => '', 'V77' => '', 'c' => '',
+                 'malloc' => '', 'crypt' => '', 'resolv' => '', 'c_s' => '',
+                 'socket' => '', 'X11' => 'DECW$XLIBSHR',
+                 'Xt' => 'DECW$XTSHR', 'Xm' => 'DECW$XMLIBSHR',
+                 'Xmu' => 'DECW$XMULIBSHR');
+  if ($Config{'vms_cc_type'} ne 'decc') { $libmap{'curses'} = 'VAXCCURSE'; }
+
+  print STDOUT "Potential libraries are '$potential_libs'\n" if $verbose;
+
+  # First, sort out directories and library names in the input
+  foreach $lib (split ' ',$potential_libs) {
+    push(@dirs,$1),   next if $lib =~ /^-L(.*)/;
+    push(@dirs,$lib), next if $lib =~ /[:>\]]$/;
+    push(@dirs,$lib), next if -d $lib;
+    push(@libs,$1),   next if $lib =~ /^-l(.*)/;
+    push(@libs,$lib);
+  }
+  push(@dirs,split(' ',$Config{'libpth'}));
+
+  # Now make sure we've got VMS-syntax absolute directory specs
+  # (We don't, however, check whether someone's hidden a relative
+  # path in a logical name.)
+  foreach $dir (@dirs) {
+    unless (-d $dir) {
+      print STDOUT "Skipping nonexistent Directory $dir\n" if $verbose > 1;
+      $dir = '';
+      next;
+    }
+    print STDOUT "Resolving directory $dir\n" if $verbose;
+    if ($self->file_name_is_absolute($dir)) { $dir = $self->fixpath($dir,1); }
+    else                                    { $dir = $self->catdir($cwd,$dir); }
+  }
+  @dirs = grep { length($_) } @dirs;
+  unshift(@dirs,''); # Check each $lib without additions first
+
+  LIB: foreach $lib (@libs) {
+    if (exists $libmap{$lib}) {
+      next unless length $libmap{$lib};
+      $lib = $libmap{$lib};
+    }
+
+    my(@variants,$variant,$name,$test,$cand);
+    my($ctype) = '';
+
+    # If we don't have a file type, consider it a possibly abbreviated name and
+    # check for common variants.  We try these first to grab libraries before
+    # a like-named executable image (e.g. -lperl resolves to perlshr.exe
+    # before perl.exe).
+    if ($lib !~ /\.[^:>\]]*$/) {
+      push(@variants,"${lib}shr","${lib}rtl","${lib}lib");
+      push(@variants,"lib$lib") if $lib !~ /[:>\]]/;
+    }
+    push(@variants,$lib);
+    print STDOUT "Looking for $lib\n" if $verbose;
+    foreach $variant (@variants) {
+      foreach $dir (@dirs) {
+        my($type);
+
+        $name = "$dir$variant";
+        print "\tChecking $name\n" if $verbose > 2;
+        if (-f ($test = VMS::Filespec::rmsexpand($name))) {
+          # It's got its own suffix, so we'll have to figure out the type
+          if    ($test =~ /(?:$so|exe)$/i)      { $type = 'sh'; }
+          elsif ($test =~ /(?:$lib_ext|olb)$/i) { $type = 'olb'; }
+          elsif ($test =~ /(?:$obj_ext|obj)$/i) {
+            print STDOUT "Warning (will try anyway): Plain object file $test found in library list\n";
+            $type = 'obj';
+          }
+          else {
+            print STDOUT "Warning (will try anyway): Unknown library type for $test; assuming shared\n";
+            $type = 'sh';
+          }
+        }
+        elsif (-f ($test = VMS::Filespec::rmsexpand($name,$so))      or
+               -f ($test = VMS::Filespec::rmsexpand($name,'.exe')))     {
+          $type = 'sh';
+          $name = $test unless $test =~ /exe;?\d*$/i;
+        }
+        elsif (not length($ctype) and  # If we've got a lib already, don't bother
+               ( -f ($test = VMS::Filespec::rmsexpand($name,$lib_ext)) or
+                 -f ($test = VMS::Filespec::rmsexpand($name,'.olb'))))  {
+          $type = 'olb';
+          $name = $test unless $test =~ /olb;?\d*$/i;
+        }
+        elsif (not length($ctype) and  # If we've got a lib already, don't bother
+               ( -f ($test = VMS::Filespec::rmsexpand($name,$obj_ext)) or
+                 -f ($test = VMS::Filespec::rmsexpand($name,'.obj'))))  {
+          print STDOUT "Warning (will try anyway): Plain object file $test found in library list\n";
+          $type = 'obj';
+          $name = $test unless $test =~ /obj;?\d*$/i;
+        }
+        if (defined $type) {
+          $ctype = $type; $cand = $name;
+          last if $ctype eq 'sh';
+        }
+      }
+      if ($ctype) { 
+        eval '$' . $ctype . "{'$cand'}++";
+        die "Error recording library: $@" if $@;
+        print STDOUT "\tFound as $name (really $test), type $type\n" if $verbose > 1;
+        next LIB;
+      }
+    }
+    print STDOUT "Warning (will try anyway): No library found for $lib\n";
+  }
+
+  @libs = sort keys %obj;
+  # This has to precede any other CRTLs, so just make it first
+  if ($olb{VAXCCURSE}) {
+    push(@libs,"$olb{VAXCCURSE}/Library");
+    delete $olb{VAXCCURSE};
+  }
+  push(@libs, map { "$_/Library" } sort keys %olb);
+  push(@libs, map { "$_/Share"   } sort keys %sh);
+  $lib = join(' ',@libs);
+  print "Result: $lib\n" if $verbose;
+  wantarray ? ($lib, '', $lib, '') : $lib;
+}
+
 1;
 
 __END__
@@ -247,11 +382,55 @@ object file.  This list is used to create a .bs (bootstrap) file.
 This module deals with a lot of system dependencies and has quite a
 few architecture specific B<if>s in the code.
 
+=head2 VMS implementation
+
+The version of ext() which is executed under VMS differs from the
+Unix-OS/2 version in several respects:
+
+=over 2
+
+=item *
+
+Input library and path specifications are accepted with or without the
+C<-l> and C<-L> prefices used by Unix linkers.  If neither prefix is
+present, a token is considered a directory to search if it is in fact
+a directory, and a library to search for otherwise.  Authors who wish
+their extensions to be portable to Unix or OS/2 should use the Unix
+prefixes, since the Unix-OS/2 version of ext() requires them.
+
+=item *
+
+Wherever possible, shareable images are preferred to object libraries,
+and object libraries to plain object files.  In accordance with VMS
+naming conventions, ext() looks for files named I<lib>shr and I<lib>rtl;
+it also looks for I<lib>lib and libI<lib> to accomodate Unix conventions
+used in some ported software.
+
+=item *
+
+For each library that is found, an appropriate directive for a linker options
+file is generated.  The return values are space-separated strings of
+these directives, rather than elements used on the linker command line.
+
+=item *
+
+LDLOADLIBS and EXTRALIBS are always identical under VMS, and BSLOADLIBS
+and LD_RIN_PATH are always empty.
+
+=back
+
+In addition, an attempt is made to recognize several common Unix library
+names, and filter them out or convert them to their VMS equivalents, as
+appropriate.
+
+In general, the VMS version of ext() should properly handle input from
+extensions originally designed for a Unix or VMS environment.  If you
+encounter problems, or discover cases where the search could be improved,
+please let us know.
+
 =head1 SEE ALSO
 
 L<ExtUtils::MakeMaker>
 
 =cut
 
-
-
diff --git a/lib/ExtUtils/MM_Unix.pm b/lib/ExtUtils/MM_Unix.pm
index ca2bf652ee..5d97956405 100644
--- a/lib/ExtUtils/MM_Unix.pm
+++ b/lib/ExtUtils/MM_Unix.pm
@@ -1701,7 +1701,7 @@ sub init_others {	# --- Initialize Other Attributes
     };
 
     # These get overridden for VMS and maybe some other systems
-    $self->{NOOP}  ||= "sh -c true";
+    $self->{NOOP}  ||= '$(SHELL) -c true';
     $self->{FIRST_MAKEFILE} ||= "Makefile";
     $self->{MAKEFILE} ||= $self->{FIRST_MAKEFILE};
     $self->{MAKE_APERL_FILE} ||= "Makefile.aperl";
@@ -1923,6 +1923,10 @@ sub macro {
 Called by staticmake. Defines how to write the Makefile to produce a
 static new perl.
 
+By default the Makefile produced includes all the static extensions in
+the perl library. (Purified versions of library files, e.g.,
+DynaLoader_pure_p1_c0_032.a are automatically ignored to avoid link errors.)
+
 =cut
 
 sub makeaperl {
@@ -1987,6 +1991,8 @@ $(MAKE_APERL_FILE) : $(FIRST_MAKEFILE)
     File::Find::find(sub {
 	return unless m/\Q$self->{LIB_EXT}\E$/;
 	return if m/^libperl/;
+	# Skip purified versions of libraries (e.g., DynaLoader_pure_p1_c0_032.a)
+	return if m/_pure_\w+_\w+_\w+\.\w+$/ and -f "$File::Find::dir/.pure";
 
 	if( exists $self->{INCLUDE_EXT} ){
 		my $found = 0;
@@ -2107,7 +2113,7 @@ $tmp/perlmain\$(OBJ_EXT): $tmp/perlmain.c
 $tmp/perlmain.c: $makefilename}, q{
 	}.$self->{NOECHO}.q{echo Writing $@
 	}.$self->{NOECHO}.q{$(PERL) $(MAP_PERLINC) -e 'use ExtUtils::Miniperl; \\
-		writemain(grep s#.*/auto/##, qw|$(MAP_STATIC)|)' > $@.tmp && mv $@.tmp $@
+		writemain(grep s#.*/auto/##, qw|$(MAP_STATIC)|)' > $@t && mv $@t $@
 
 };
 
@@ -2451,7 +2457,7 @@ $(OBJECT) : $(PERL_HDRS)
 =item pm_to_blib
 
 Defines target that copies all files in the hash PM to their
-destination and autosplits them. See L<ExtUtils::Install/pm_to_blib>
+destination and autosplits them. See L<ExtUtils::Install/DESCRIPTION>
 
 =cut
 
diff --git a/lib/ExtUtils/MM_VMS.pm b/lib/ExtUtils/MM_VMS.pm
index d05ddac6b8..1a63f215da 100644
--- a/lib/ExtUtils/MM_VMS.pm
+++ b/lib/ExtUtils/MM_VMS.pm
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 #   Author:  Charles Bailey  bailey@genetics.upenn.edu
 
 package ExtUtils::MM_VMS;
-$ExtUtils::MM_VMS::Revision=$ExtUtils::MM_VMS::Revision = '5.38 (02-Oct-1996)';
+$ExtUtils::MM_VMS::Revision=$ExtUtils::MM_VMS::Revision = '5.38 (22-Oct-1996)';
 unshift @MM::ISA, 'ExtUtils::MM_VMS';
 
 use Config;
@@ -194,6 +194,7 @@ sub updir {
 
 package ExtUtils::MM_VMS;
 
+sub ExtUtils::MM_VMS::ext;
 sub ExtUtils::MM_VMS::guess_name;
 sub ExtUtils::MM_VMS::find_perl;
 sub ExtUtils::MM_VMS::path;
@@ -204,7 +205,6 @@ sub ExtUtils::MM_VMS::file_name_is_absolute;
 sub ExtUtils::MM_VMS::replace_manpage_separator;
 sub ExtUtils::MM_VMS::init_others;
 sub ExtUtils::MM_VMS::constants;
-sub ExtUtils::MM_VMS::const_loadlibs;
 sub ExtUtils::MM_VMS::cflags;
 sub ExtUtils::MM_VMS::const_cccmd;
 sub ExtUtils::MM_VMS::pm_to_blib;
@@ -268,6 +268,16 @@ sub AUTOLOAD {
 
 #__DATA__
 
+
+# This isn't really an override.  It's just here because ExtUtils::MM_VMS
+# appears in @MM::ISA before ExtUtils::Liblist, so if there isn't an ext()
+# in MM_VMS, then AUTOLOAD is called, and bad things happen.  So, we just
+# mimic inheritance here and hand off to ExtUtils::Liblist.
+sub ext {
+  ExtUtils::Liblist::ext(@_);
+}
+
+
 =head2 SelfLoaded methods
 
 Those methods which override default MM_Unix methods are marked
@@ -289,12 +299,24 @@ package name.
 
 sub guess_name {
     my($self) = @_;
-    my($defname,$defpm);
+    my($defname,$defpm,@pm,%xs,$pm);
     local *PM;
 
     $defname = basename(fileify($ENV{'DEFAULT'}));
     $defname =~ s![\d\-_]*\.dir.*$!!;  # Clip off .dir;1 suffix, and package version
     $defpm = $defname;
+    # Fallback in case for some reason a user has copied the files for an
+    # extension into a working directory whose name doesn't reflect the
+    # extension's name.  We'll use the name of a unique .pm file, or the
+    # first .pm file with a matching .xs file.
+    if (not -e "${defpm}.pm") {
+      @pm = map { s/.pm$//; $_ } glob('*.pm');
+      if (@pm == 1) { ($defpm = $pm[0]) =~ s/.pm$//; }
+      elsif (@pm) {
+        %xs = map { s/.xs$//; ($_,1) } glob('*.xs');
+        if (%xs) { foreach $pm (@pm) { $defpm = $pm, last if exists $xs{$pm}; } }
+      }
+    }
     if (open(PM,"${defpm}.pm")){
         while (<PM>) {
             if (/^\s*package\s+([^;]+)/i) {
@@ -700,57 +722,6 @@ PM_TO_BLIB = ',join(', ',@{$self->{PM_TO_BLIB}}),'
     join('',@m);
 }
 
-=item const_loadlibs (override)
-
-Basically a stub which passes through library specfications provided
-by the caller.  Will be updated or removed when VMS support is added
-to ExtUtils::Liblist.
-
-=cut
-
-sub const_loadlibs {
-    my($self) = @_;
-    my (@m);
-    push @m, "
-# $self->{NAME} might depend on some other libraries.
-# (These comments may need revising:)
-#
-# Dependent libraries can be linked in one of three ways:
-#
-#  1.  (For static extensions) by the ld command when the perl binary
-#      is linked with the extension library. See EXTRALIBS below.
-#
-#  2.  (For dynamic extensions) by the ld command when the shared
-#      object is built/linked. See LDLOADLIBS below.
-#
-#  3.  (For dynamic extensions) by the DynaLoader when the shared
-#      object is loaded. See BSLOADLIBS below.
-#
-# EXTRALIBS =	List of libraries that need to be linked with when
-#		linking a perl binary which includes this extension
-#		Only those libraries that actually exist are included.
-#		These are written to a file and used when linking perl.
-#
-# LDLOADLIBS =	List of those libraries which can or must be linked into
-#		the shared library when created using ld. These may be
-#		static or dynamic libraries.
-#		LD_RUN_PATH is a colon separated list of the directories
-#		in LDLOADLIBS. It is passed as an environment variable to
-#		the process that links the shared library.
-#
-# BSLOADLIBS =	List of those libraries that are needed but can be
-#		linked in dynamically at run time on this platform.
-#		SunOS/Solaris does not need this because ld records
-#		the information (from LDLOADLIBS) into the object file.
-#		This list is used to create a .bs (bootstrap) file.
-#
-EXTRALIBS  = ",map($self->fixpath($_) . ' ',$self->{'EXTRALIBS'}),"
-BSLOADLIBS = ",map($self->fixpath($_) . ' ',$self->{'BSLOADLIBS'}),"
-LDLOADLIBS = ",map($self->fixpath($_) . ' ',$self->{'LDLOADLIBS'}),"\n";
-
-    join('',@m);
-}
-
 =item cflags (override)
 
 Bypass shell script and produce qualifiers for CC directly (but warn
@@ -1271,7 +1242,21 @@ $(BASEEXT).opt : Makefile.PL
 	$(PERL) -e "print ""$(INST_STATIC)/Include=$(BASEEXT)\n$(INST_STATIC)/Library\n"";" >>$(MMS$TARGET)
 ');
 
+    if (length $self->{LDLOADLIBS}) {
+	my($lib); my($line) = '';
+	foreach $lib (split ' ', $self->{LDLOADLIBS}) {
+	    $lib =~ s%\$%\\\$%g;  # Escape '$' in VMS filespecs
+	    if (length($line) + length($lib) > 160) {
+		push @m, "\t\$(PERL) -e \"print qq[$line]\" >>\$(MMS\$TARGET)\n";
+		$line = $lib . '\n';
+	    }
+	    else { $line .= $lib . '\n'; }
+	}
+	push @m, "\t\$(PERL) -e \"print qq[$line]\" >>\$(MMS\$TARGET)\n" if $line;
+    }
+
     join('',@m);
+
 }
 
 =item dynamic_lib (override)
@@ -1414,8 +1399,7 @@ sub manifypods {
     } else {
 	$pod2man_exe = $self->catfile($Config{scriptdirexp},'pod2man');
     }
-    if ($pod2man_exe = $self->perl_script($pod2man_exe)) { $found_pod2man = 1; }
-    else {
+    if (not ($pod2man_exe = $self->perl_script($pod2man_exe))) {
 	# No pod2man but some MAN3PODS to be installed
 	print <<END;
 
@@ -2255,18 +2239,6 @@ map_clean :
     join '', @m;
 }
   
-=item ext (specific)
-
-Stub routine standing in for C<ExtUtils::LibList::ext> until VMS
-support is added to that package.
-
-=cut
-
-sub ext {
-    my($self) = @_;
-    '','','';
-}
-
 # --- Output postprocessing section ---
 
 =item nicetext (override)
diff --git a/lib/ExtUtils/typemap b/lib/ExtUtils/typemap
index 14d1222e63..c65b1cf35d 100644
--- a/lib/ExtUtils/typemap
+++ b/lib/ExtUtils/typemap
@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ T_REF_IV_PTR
 	else
 	    croak(\"$var is not of type ${ntype}\")
 T_PTROBJ
-	if (sv_isa($arg, \"${ntype}\")) {
+	if (sv_derived_from($arg, \"${ntype}\")) {
 	    IV tmp = SvIV((SV*)SvRV($arg));
 	    $var = ($type) tmp;
 	}
diff --git a/lib/ExtUtils/xsubpp b/lib/ExtUtils/xsubpp
index eaf5bd4342..6823955113 100755
--- a/lib/ExtUtils/xsubpp
+++ b/lib/ExtUtils/xsubpp
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ perl(1), perlxs(1), perlxstut(1), perlxs(1)
 =cut
 
 # Global Constants
-$XSUBPP_version = "1.938";
+$XSUBPP_version = "1.939";
 require 5.002;
 use vars '$cplusplus';
 
@@ -741,7 +741,9 @@ while (fetch_para()) {
 	$XSStack[$XSS_work_idx]{varname} = $cpp_next_tmp++;
     }
 
-    death ("Code is not inside a function")
+    death ("Code is not inside a function"
+	   ." (maybe last function was ended by a blank line "
+	   ." followed by a a statement on column one?)")
 	if $line[0] =~ /^\s/;
 
     # initialize info arrays