At least half of the power of Perl lies in the many modules that are available for almost any programming task you can imagine. Finding, getting and using these modules is very easy, thanks to the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN). The core Perl distribution includes a CPAN client application that can automatically download and install the desired module, along with all the modules it depends on and their documentation.

The only problem with CPAN is that because everyone can upload and because there is always more than one way to do things in Perl, there are often a lot of similar modules to choose from and it is sometimes not easy to decide which one is best. A recently introduced rating system should help here.