
 WHAT IS THIS?
 =============
 This software distribution contains the following packages for using
 Perl5 "pod" (Plain Old Documentation).  See the "perlpod" and "perlsyn"
 manual pages from your Perl5 distribution for more information about pod.

 Pod::Parser
 -----------
   The Perl5 module "Pod::Parser", which provides a base class for
   parsing and selecting sections of POD documentation from an input
   stream.  Please see the POD documentation for this module (embedded
   in the file "Parser.pm") for more details.

 Pod::Select
 -----------
   The Perl5 module "Pod::Select", which provides a subclass of
   Pod::Parser and an exported function named "podselect()" to dump
   selected sections of raw pod documentation from an input stream.
   Please see the POD documentation for this module (embedded in the
   file "Select.pm") and Pod::Parser for more details.

 Pod::Usage
 ----------
   The Perl5 module "Pod::Usage" which provides the function "pod2usage()"
   to print usage messages for a Perl script based on its embedded pod
   documentation. Pod::Usage is a subclass of Pod::PlainText. Please see
   the POD documentation for this module (embedded in the file "Usage.pm")
   for more details. The pod2usage() function is probably the most
   generally useful function in this entire distribution since it is
   useful to just about any Perl5 script that is invoked from the
   command-line.

 Pod::PlainText
 --------------
   A replacement for the Perl5 module "Pod::Text" and the corresponding
   "pod2text()" function. It is derived from the Pod::Parser class.
   Please see the POD documentation for this module and Pod::Parser for
   more details (embedded in the file "PlainText.pm").

   *NOTE*: As of perl 5.00_58, Pod::PlainText has been re-written by
   Russ Allbery, and has been renamed to Pod::Text in the core Perl
   distribution (replacing the previous implementation of Pod::Text).
   The Pod::PlainText module is still provided with Pod::Parser on CPAN
   solely for backward compatibility. Once Perl 5.6 becomes the latest
   stable version of Perl, then Pod::PlainText will be removed from the
   PodParser distribution!!

 Pod::InputObjects
 -----------------
   Some input objects needed by Pod::Parser, and for advanced users of
   Pod::Parser that need more about a command besides its name and text.

 Pod::Checker
 ------------
   A module to check the syntax of a POD document. It is just in the
   very beginning stages right now and is *far* from being thorough or
   complete. Its just a starting point that I hope others who plan to
   use it can help me flesh it out further.
   This module also collects information about hyperlink nodes of the
   document processed that can be used by converters later on.

 Pod::ParseUtils
 ---------------
   A module with several object-oriented helpers for POD parsing and
   processing. Probably the most important is Pod::Hyperlink for
   parsing and expanding POD hyperlinks L<...>.


 AUTHORS/CONTRIBUTORS
 ====================
 Brad Appleton  <bradapp@enteract.com>  http://www.enteract.com/~bradapp/
 Russ Allbery   <rra@standford.edu>
 Marek Rouchal  <marek@saftsack.fs.uni-bayreuth.de>


 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
 ================
 * Kenneth Albanowski for his extensive assistance with the design and
   interface of Pod::Parser.

 * Steven McDougall for his help and patience with re-writing the manpage
   for Pod::Usage and Pod::Parser.

 * Achim Bonnet for helping me get the regression test-suite into a form
   that works with 'make test' generated by MakeMaker

 * Nick Ing-Simmons, for his considerable time and effort spent trying to
   make pre-release versions of Pod::Parser work with code and giving me
   feedback on the implementation and design.

 * Russ Allbery for re-writing Pod::PlainText from scratch and getting it
   to replace Pod::Text in the core for perl 5.00_58!

 COPY/REUSE POLICY
 =================
 Except where explicitly stated otherwise within the contents of a file,
 this distribution and all the files in it are Copyright (C) 1996-1999
 by Brad Appleton.  All rights reserved.

 PodParser is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
 under the terms of the Artistic License distributed with Perl version
 5.000 or (at your option) any later version. Please refer to the
 Artistic License that came with your Perl distribution for more
 details. If your version of Perl was not distributed under the
 terms of the Artistic License, than you may distribute PodParser
 under the same terms as Perl itself.

 The Artistic License should have been included in your distribution of
 Perl. It resides in the file named "Artistic" at the top-level of the
 Perl source tree (where Perl was downloaded/unpacked -- ask your
 system administrator if you dont know where this is).  Alternatively,
 the current version of the Artistic License distributed with Perl can
 be viewed on-line on the World-Wide Web (WWW) from the following URL:

      http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html

 The latest version of Perl can be obtained on the World-Wide web (WWW)
 from the following URL:

      http://www.perl.com/CPAN/src/latest.tar.gz


 DISCLAIMER
 ===========
 This software is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
 is provided "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either expressed or
 implied, INCLUDING, without limitation, the implied warranties of
 MERCHANTABILITY and FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

 The ENTIRE RISK as to the quality and performance of the software
 IS WITH YOU (the holder of the software).  Should the software prove
 defective, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR
 CORRECTION.

 IN NO EVENT WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY CREATE,
 MODIFY, OR DISTRIBUTE THE SOFTWARE BE LIABLE OR RESPONSIBLE TO YOU OR TO
 ANY OTHER ENTITY FOR ANY KIND OF DAMAGES (no matter how awful - not even
 if they arise from known or unknown flaws in the software).

 Please refer to the Artistic License that came with your Perl
 distribution for more details.


 CONTENTS
 ========
 Please see the file named "MANIFEST" which should have been included
 in the PodParser distribution.


 REQUIREMENTS
 ============
 * Perl version 5.005 or later

 * File::Spec from CPAN (already bundled in Perl 5.005)


 BUILDING & INSTALLING
 =====================
 Please see the perl "ExtUtils::MakeMaker" manpage for how to build and
 install using the Makefile.PL template.  In a nutshell, simply typing:

      perl Makefile.PL

 should build a Makefile with the usual targets like "all", "clean",
 "test", and "install".


 BUGS
 ====
 Please send all bug reports to Brad Appleton <bradapp@enteract.com>.


 TO DO
 =====
 Please see the file named "TODO" which should have been included
 in the PodParser distribution.

 HISTORY
 =======
 Please see the file named "CHANGES" which should have been included
 in the PodParser distribution.

