[ale] gaim perl plugins

[joh6nn at hotpop.com (joh6nn)]

i've been trying to get a perl plugin i found for Gaim working, but so 
far, no luck.  i'm using gaim 1.1.2, and i'm not getting any error 
messages from Gaim, but i'm also not seeing the plugin listed in Gaim's 
preferences.  i've monitored gaim's debug window, but i haven't noticed 
anything that's obviously related to my problem.  i get a symbol lookup 
error when i try to run the script from the command line, but i suspect 
that's probably just because the script's not intended to be run from 
the command line.  the wording of the FAQ at the gaim site suggests that 
the perl module is enabled by default, but stuff i found through google 
suggested it wasn't.  does anyone know

1) if perl plguins are enabled by default?
2) how to enable them if they're not?
3) how to further troubleshoot this?

thanks a bunch

-joh6nn