Writing Perl Modules for Cpan

As lARRYWALL, creator ofPerl, puts it, "Perl makes easyjobseasy and hard jobs possible." This is a large part of what makes Perl such a great language-most jobs really are easy in Perl. Butthat stillleaves the hard ones--database access, GUI development, Web clients, and so on. While they are undeniably possible in pure Perl, they arealso certainly not easy. Until you discover CPAN, that is. After that, all these jobs and more become a simple matter of choosing the right module. CPAN makes hard jobs easy. The first chapter of this book will show you how to get the mostout of CPAN. Although you can get a Iot done just by using CPAN modules, you can go further by creating your own reusable Perl modules. Chapter 2 will teach you how to create Perlmodules from the ground up. No prior module programming expe- rience is required. Chapter 3 will improve your skills with a detailed discussion of module design and implementation. Once you're a full-fledged Perlmodule programmer, you'll naturallywant to share your work. Chapter 4 will showyou how to package your modules in module distributions. The next step, registerlog as a module author on CPAN and uploading your modules, is covered in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 is all about what happens after you upload-maintaining your modules as they grow and change over time. Of course, some modules are better than others. Chapter 7 examines a collection of CPAN's most successful modules to discover the secrets of their success.