POD is much -- much -- easier to learn than HTML. Frankly, there really isn't any learning involved. If you know HTML, you can learn POD in 30 seconds. Ready? Here we go:

=pod

Marks the start of the POD

=head1 Some Text for a Level 1 Heading

Like an H1 tag

=head2 Some Text for a Level 2 Heading

Like an H2 tag

=over 4

Starts a list

=item Some text

Like a LI tag

=back

Ends the list

=cut

Marks the end of the POD

other text that starts in column 1

Like a P tag, this will word-wrap into a paragraph.

other text that is indented

Like a PRE tag, this will be displayed unaltered.

That's pretty much it, really. You just need to remember to follow each of the above with a blank line and you're set.

There are also things to mark text as being B<bold>, or a F<filename>, or a L<link> to another module's documentation, but beyond that there isn't much to a POD. There is a semi-standard format for what to include in your documentation (what the various section headings are), but that would be equally true regardless of whether you were writing your docs in POD or HTML.

Wally Hartshorn