My intent wasn't to promote ExtUtils::MakeMaker, I too have found it hard to work with for complex tasks, which is why I now use Module::Build and am going to be taking a hard look at Module::Install in the near future.

I also think you misunderstood most of my post. There is no duplication of your source tree, and no blib weirdness. Your source repository for a particular app *IS* your build environment. There is no need to have your build process checkout the source, your simply build a dist in your working copy.

To give a detailed example let's say I have a mod_perl application that I'm building called 'Foo'. I start off my application with module-starter and it creates the Foo/ tree for me with a lib/ ( where your code goes ) and the other various elements we're all accustomed to.

Once I've put in stubs for all of my various modules, Foo::Main, Foo::Admin::*, Foo::Model, etc... I then check this entire structure into my revision control system ( I use subversion ) and I'm done.

No blib weirdness ( incidentally this directory is only created when actually install your app ), no duplication of my source tree, no convoluted patters I can think of... unless of course you prefer to just drop everything in some very large directory without any organization.