The Test:: modules are absolute essentials for me. Never develop without them. Once you get test infected you won't either :-)
Although Test::More has been core since v5.007003 other useful things like Test::Differences, Test::Exception, etc. are not.
Other essentials for me include:
- Template - I like templates. Template Toolkit meets my requirements best.
- AppConfig - saves me typing and makes all my apps work the same.
- CGI::Application - saves me code and encourages me to be good
- DBI - the best DB layer I've come across in any language
- CPANPLUS - makes automating CPAN installs so much simpler
- Class::DBI - saves me so much typing when developing DB applications
- Exception::Class - I like exceptions
- HTML::Parser - is my friend for messing with HTML
Updates:
- 20020922 - made "test infected" a link - thanks ignatz