M-x cperl-indent-region: why error "no comment syntax is defined"?

M-x cperl-indent-region: why error "no comment syntax is defined"?

[David Combs]

(I cross-post this in hope that eg ilya or other guru might see it
sooner.  Plus ANY respondees will see posts from ALL respondees.
   (yes, I know there is a religious-issue about cross-posting :-(  ))


M-x cperl-indent-region: why error "no comment syntax is defined"?

-----   Heading-lines of /.../cvs-emacs--6apr05/lisp/progmodes/cperl-mode.el:

;;; cperl-mode.el --- Perl code editing commands for Emacs

;; Copyright (C) 1985,86,87,91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98,99,2000,03,2004,2005
;;     Free Software Foundation, Inc.

;; Author: Ilya Zakharevich and Bob Olson
;; Maintainer: Ilya Zakharevich <cperl@ilyaz.org>
;; Keywords: languages, Perl

;; This file is part of GNU Emacs.


(I could find no version-number in the file, but
the line-numbers via egrep -n could indicate the version):
---------------- an egrep on 'comment-start':


./progmodes/cperl-mode.el:1466:  (make-local-variable 'comment-start)
./progmodes/cperl-mode.el:1467:  (setq comment-start "# ")
./progmodes/cperl-mode.el:1472:  (make-local-variable 'comment-start-skip)
./progmodes/cperl-mode.el:1473:  (setq comment-start-skip "#+ *")

./progmodes/cperl-mode.el:1654:  (let ((comment-start "#"))
./progmodes/cperl-mode.el:1661:  (let ((comment-start "#"))




---- FWIW (probably nothing), I not-much-later got this error:

File mode specification error: (void-variable mode-require-final-newline)
keyboard-quit: Quit
cperl-mode: Symbol's value as variable is void: mode-require-final-newline [2 times]
Mark set


Thanks,

David