++
Tanktalus.
I had been getting closer to posting something on this topic, in response to the somewhat common requests from Seekers of Perl Wisdom to provide help -- as long as it did not involve non-core modules. You did the work for me, providing comprehensive scenarios which exceed my experience level.
Some simple advice I have given to fellow wisdom seekers is to navigate to the appropriate CPAN webpage, click on the "Source" link, and just copy'n'paste the code directly. This is only practical for simple, pure Perl modules, but there are plenty of those available.