Who This Tutorial is For

This tutorial is aimed at:

• Beginning developers interested in making contributions to CPAN with no or limited experience creating a distribution and are interested in learning Dist::Zilla to automate the creation of their distributions.
• Developers having some experience releasing distributions using the simpler tools and looking to step up their game.
• Existing Dist::Zilla users who may not have a firm grasp on all of its moving parts and are looking for a bit of enlightenment.

Dist::Zilla: For Experts Only?

We've heard it argued that a module like Dist::Zilla is overkill for beginning developers. We disagree. We think if beginners are provided with documenation targeted to their skill level, Dist::Zilla can be a great boon to them. Powerful tools become a lot more useful and less confusing with good guidance.

Yes, Dist::Zilla is a very powerful, flexible tool. Like any advanced tool, it is best wielded by those who have a good understanding of how to properly build a perl distribution using more traditional approaches. Dist::Zilla does not eliminate the need to know about build systems, tests, and other basic concepts and practices that are employed for distribution creation. And so beginners who are completely new to perl module distributions are often discouraged from diving into Dist::Zilla without a solid understanding of what goes into the proper building of a perl module distribution.

We hope to change that.

This tutorial attempts to give newer developers a gentle introduction to both Dist::Zilla and provide basic insights into what a Perl software distribution requires. We think Dist::Zilla, if properly introduced, can be a great tool for learning how to release high quality, distributable Perl software.

Software Prerequisites for this Tutorial

You should have a relatively modern release of Perl installed on your machine. Anything newer than 5.20 should be adequate.

The tutorial will have you install modules with the the cpanm command so you should take a moment to install it with cpan App::cpanminus if it's is not already installed on your machine.

Finally, you'll also need a copy of Dist::Zilla installed. If it's not, you know what to do.