The 404 comes when I use search.cpan.org, find this page http://search.cpan.org/~grantm/XML-Simple-2.09/lib/XML/Simple.pm and then see this link at the bottom http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?XML%3A%3ASimple%3A%3AFAQ.

And the FAQ isn't on my hard drive, it may or may not be on a web server someone else owns and which I don't have command-line access to. Lots of people code that way, like it or not.

Here's a question for the ages -- why isn't XML::Simple the top hit when I search CPAN for "XML::Simple"?

But I'm going to stop being facetious now and say thank you for responding and having written the module. It was the answer to a good 80% of my prayers, right out of the box!