If you don't have a C compiler because your vendor for whatever reasons did not include one with your system, the best thing to do is grab a binary version of gcc from the net and use that to compile perl with. CPAN only has binaries for systems that are terribly hard to get free compilers for, not for Unix systems.
Some URLs that might help you are:
http://www.cpan.org/ports/
http://www.perl.com/pub/language/info/software.htmlSomeone looking for a Perl for Win16 might look to Laszlo Molnar's djgpp
port in http://www.cpan.org/ports/#msdos , which comes with clear
installation instructions. A simple installation guide for MS-DOS using
Ilya Zakharevich's OS/2 port is available at
http://www.cs.ruu.nl/%7Epiet/perl5dos.html
and similarly for Windows 3.1 at http://www.cs.ruu.nl/%7Epiet/perlwin3.html .