Just a note about CPAN. Many modules are not written by experts. If you want to spend your time learning some module and adapting your program for it be sure to evalute alternatives. Often there exist several choises. Some of them is better suited for your task, some of them actually is just a pile of crap. Good example is templating modules. There exist so many of them on CPAN but people still upload new modules that do the same thing. IMHO some of them .. just doesn't deserve right for life :).

Some criterias I use myself:

• Look at sources: if I don't like how it is written it is very unlikely I use it.
• Does module have automated tests? It is not very important criteria but usually good programmers tend to create them.
• Is it supported by its mainteiner? Usually I try to avoid unmaintained modules.

--
Ilya Martynov (http://martynov.org/)