Writing Perl Modules for CPAN

CPAN also sports a variety of search engines. Currently, the most useful is http://www.search.cpan.org (see Figure 1-6 for the entry screen). Not only does this search engine provide search capabilities, it also serves HTML versions of module documentation and gives access to a pleasantly formatted list of recently updated modules. This enables you to evaluate a group of modules without the trouble of installing them.

Figure 1-6: http://www.search.cpan.org entry screen

To use the search engine, just type a word in the search box and click the Search button. You can also enter a regular expression or choose a specific part of CPAN if you need to narrow your search. When you find a module that sounds interesting, just click the name, and you'll be brought to a details screen where you can view the module documentation.

The search interface also includes interfaces that mimic features offered by http://www.cpan.org. You can browse by category and see a list of recently uploaded files with an arguably prettier interface. You should try both interfaces and choose the one you like the best.