It is a build tool, which becomes a prerequisite when trying to fix a bug in code maintained by someone who uses it. I get it, if you are developing many cpan modules it makes sense, it makes your life easier. If you are just coming along and trying to fix a trivial problem/provide a trivial enhancement, the barrier for participation just jumped a few levels in terms of ease. For a long time one of the plugins (I can't remember which) frequently used by such developers was broken, so the long (as it was then, on a low powered machine I was using) installation time was all wasted, due to said bug. The plugin in question required patching manually at the time. From talking to other users it's a real turn off in terms of participation. I can see both sides of the coin here, but I'd never recommend this path for someone in Lady_Aleenas shoes.