In the comments to a previous article, I mentioned that I use Module::Starter when starting a new distribution.

I actually use a custom profile along with the very handy Test::XT to produce robust release tests that won't break when people are just trying to install with the minimum fuss.

I thought it might be useful for other people if I wrote a quick tutorial on how to achieve the same results themselves.

As mentioned in my previous article, "Still Alive and What I've Been Up To", I've been working on a way to let me use Pod::Weaver without being forced down the route of using Dist::Zilla.

(The reason for not using Dist::Zilla is that its work-flow doesn't fit mine.)

To that end I've developed App::podweaver, Pod::Weaver::Role::SectionReplacer, and Pod::Weaver::PluginBundle::ReplaceBoilerplate.

All the above are GitHub because they're not yet ready for CPAN release, since they lack important things like, oh, tests that they don't go nuts and delete all your code.

That said they're at a stable enough stage that I've used them to weave their own documentation without trouble, and are potentially of enough use and interest for me to put them up for early adopters to take a look at, or for people to copy the guts to do their own thing with.

For more details on what does what, carry on reading below the cut.

I've failed the Perl Iron Man Challenge again, but I'm still alive, just busy.

I've had a couple of articles semi-written for the past two weeks, but they still very much works-in-progress, because they're about projects that are still... very much in-progress.

So I thought I'd post an interim report in the style of the "What I'm Working On" posts that crop up every so often.

One project is getting Pod::Weaver to do what I want, as mentioned in my previous article, "To Dist::Zilla, or not to Dist::Zilla?", this has involved using Moose for the first time, Pod::Weaver for the first time, Pod::Elemental for the first time, Config::MVP for the first time, and Git for the first time.

I maintain 38 Perl modules across 5 distributions on CPAN, which by the standards of some authors puts me firmly in the small fry category.

Nevertheless, the logistics behind each release does tend to drag after the 78th time. (Not that I'm counting.)

For example, bumping version numbers on each of the, 22 and rising, plugin modules for Template::Benchmark is just the sort of mindlessly repetitive thing that screams out to be automated, but I end up doing it manually each release.

Now this sounds exactly like a job for Dist::Zilla, so why haven't I switched?

Thanks to a bug report by Adam Kennedy for Template::Benchmark, I found myself needing to do some testing on Windows this week.

Now to be clear, I've always loathed using Perl on Windows. I appreciate that some people use it, and I'm of the opinion that I should write my modules to work on it, but I'm happy to never touch it myself.

So it was with no small amount of trepidation that I downloaded Strawberry Perl for Windows.

Here are my first impressions.