As shown in
one of my example CPAN Makefile.PL, I use
Pod::Simple::Select to extract sections of my POD to put into the README.md and LICENSE files (so I can use my POD for the single-source for those, rather than separately maintaining them.
# auto-generate the README from the lib/Win32/Mechanize/NotepadPlusPlu
+s.pm
README.md :: lib/Win32/Mechanize/NotepadPlusPlus.pm Makefile.PL
$(PERL) -MPod::Simple::Select -e 'my $$p = Pod::Simple::Select->ne
+w();$$p->output_file(qq(README.pod));$$p->select({head1 => [qq(NAME),
+qq(SYNOPSIS),qq(DESCRIPTION),qq(LIMITATIONS),qq(INSTALLATION),qq(TODO
+),qq(AUTHOR),qq(COPYRIGHT),qq(LICENSE)]});$$p->parse_file(qq(lib/Win3
+2/Mechanize/NotepadPlusPlus.pm));'
pod2markdown README.pod README.md
$(RM_F) README.pod
# auto-generate the LICENSE file from the lib/Win32/Mechanize/NotepadP
+lusPlus.pm
LICENSE :: lib/Win32/Mechanize/NotepadPlusPlus.pm Makefile.PL
$(PERL) -MPod::Simple::Select -e 'my $$p = Pod::Simple::Select->ne
+w();$$p->output_file(qq(LICENSE.pod));$$p->select({head1 => [qw/AUTHO
+R COPYRIGHT LICENSE/]});$$p->parse_file(qq(lib/Win32/Mechanize/Notepa
+dPlusPlus.pm));'
pod2text LICENSE.pod LICENSE
$(RM_F) LICENSE.pod
The VERSION weirdity appears to be that the author didn't put the newline after =for comment, which made the POD paragraphs not be what they thought it was.
That author doesn't seem to have updated any of their repositories in the last couple of years, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's abandonware (though it makes it more likely). The only open issue is about the minimum required Tie::File version, which isn't a super-critical issue. And, as of yet, with my example usage above, I haven't had any difficulty in using the distribution as published for v0.002. (The number in a version number is just that -- a number. Being low doesn't indicate that it's not usable; many authors just start at 0.001 or 0.01 instead of 1.00. It's just a personal preference on where to start.)