This is how I think about it: it is a matter of taste, much like choosing music. You make personal decisions based on your own weighting factors. Here is an example of a set of choices that someone might use.

How do you choose your music?

• Other listeners
• Reviews
• Artist
  • Brian Setzer can do no wrong
• Publisher
  • Barking Pumpkin can do no wrong
• What is on the radio
  • XFM 104.9
• What you found all by yourself
  • Go to Backdoor Records in Cotati, California, find interesting looking discs, put them in the player and listen.

How do you choose your perl modules?

• Someone tells you about them
• Reviews
  • Magazine articles by Randall Schwartz
  • PerlMonks module reviews
• Author
  • Damian Conway can do no wrong
• Publisher
  • O'Reilly can do no wrong (module in book)
• What is on PerlMonks
  • PerlMonks questions, answers, and commentary
• Browse CPAN
  • Downloads, test and evaluate the modules yourself
  • Search results order is a good first guess

This is from a talk that I recently presented about perl.

It should work perfectly the first time! - toma

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