SYNOPSIS Acme::CPANLists is yet another way to organize CPAN modules/authors into various "lists". SPECIFICATION VERSION 0.9 DESCRIPTION With the multitude of modules that are available on CPAN, it is sometimes difficult for a user to choose an appropriate module for a task or find other modules related in some ways to a module. Various projects like CPAN Ratings (where users rate and review a distribution) or MetaCPAN (which has a ++ feature where logged-in users can press a button to ++ a module and the website will tally the number of ++'s a distribution has) help to some extent. There are also various blog posts by Perl programmers which review modules, e.g. CPAN Module Reviews by Neil Bowers . For categorizing CPAN authors, there are also the Acme::CPANAuthors project, complete with its own website . Acme::CPANLists is another way to help. One creates an Acme::CPANLists::SOMENAME module, and inside it puts lists of CPAN modules and authors with their descriptions/reviews/ratings. The creator of the list is free to organize her list in whatever way she likes. A related website/online service for "CPAN lists" is coming (when I eventually get to it :-), or perhaps when I get some help). CREATING AN ACME::CPANLISTS MODULE The first step is to decide on a name of the module. It must be under the Acme::CPANLists:: namespace. Since, unlike in Acme::CPANAuthors, a module can contain multiple lists, you can just use your CPAN ID for the module, even if you want to create many lists, for example: Acme::CPANLists::PERLANCAR. Inside the module, the two main package variables you have to declare are: our @Author_Lists = ( ... ); our @Module_Lists = ( ... ); Obviously enough, @Author_Lists contains author lists while @Module_Lists contains module lists. Each author/module list is just a hash structure (DefHash). The basic structure is this: # an example author list { #id => 'GUID', # optional, can be set to ease list identification/referral summary => 'My favorite modules', description => <<_, (Some longer description, in Markdown format) This is just a list of my favorite modules. _ entries => [ {...}, ... ], } # an example module list { #id => 'GUID', # optional, can be set to ease list identification/referral summary => 'My favorite authors', description => <<'_', (Some longer description, in Markdown format) This is just a list of my favorite authors. _ entries => [ {...}, ... ], Each entry is another, similar hash structure (DefHash): # an example author list entry { author => 'RJBS', summary => 'Kick-ass projects', description => <<'_', He is my favorite author because he starts some kick-ass projects which I use daily, one of which is Dist::Zilla. It has saved me so much time, as well wasted countless, because by using Dist::Zilla I am motivated to release lots and lots of Perl modules. _ # rating => 10, # optional, on a 1-10 scale # alternate_authors => ['SOMEONE', 'ANOTHER'], # optional, if you want to express alternate author(s) } # an example module list entry { module => 'Data::Dump', summary => 'Pretty output', description => <<'_', Data::Dump is my favorite dumping module because it outputs Perl code that is pretty and readable. _ # rating => 10, # optional, on a 1-10 scale # alternate_modules => [...], # if you are reviewing an undesirable module and want to suggest better alternative(s) # related_modules => ['Data::Dump::Color', 'Data::Dumper'], # if you want to specify related modules that are not listed on the other entries of the same list } That's it. After you have completed your lists, publish your Acme::CPANLists module to CPAN. If you are using Dist::Zilla to release your distribution, this Pod::Weaver plugin might be useful for you: Pod::Weaver::Plugin::Acme::CPANLists. It will create an AUTHOR LISTS and MODULE LISTS POD sections which are POD rendering of your author/module lists so users reading your module's documentation can immediately read your lists. USING ACME::CPANLISTS MODULES As said earlier, a website/online service that collects and indexes all Acme::CPANLists modules on CPAN is coming in the future. In the meantime, you can install the acme-cpanlists CLI script (from the App::AcmeCpanlists distribution). SEE ALSO Acme::CPANLists::* modules acme-cpanlists from App::AcmeCpanlists