SYNOPSIS

    Acme::CPANLists is yet another way to organize CPAN modules/authors
    into various "lists".

SPECIFICATION VERSION

    0.090

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 <http://cpanratings.perl.org/> (where users
    rate and review a distribution) or MetaCPAN <https://metacpan.org/>
    (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 <http://neilb.org/reviews/>.

    For categorizing CPAN authors, there are also the Acme::CPANAuthors
    project, complete with its own website <http://acme.cpanauthors.org/>.

    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

