Didn't mean to obfuscate that, it's just a one-liner. Here's how it works. Perl setup: 

perl -Mautodie -we '
die "not apple mac" unless ${^O} eq "darwin";
Open a pipe to the applescript compiler and print: 

open $f, "|-", "osacompile -o CPAN.app"; print $f qq~
Display applescript dialog to get user input: 

set CPAN to text returned of (display dialog "Search CPAN for" with title "Perl CPAN Search" default answer "")\n
Exit on empty form: 

if CPAN is equal to "" then return\n
Open website with user input: 

do shell script("open \\"https://metacpan.org/search?q=" & CPAN & "\\"")
Back to perl, close the print and pipe, open the app: 

~;
close $f;
system("open CPAN.app")'
Flowchart: 

perl -> applescript -> perl -> app -> CPAN!
The programmer is fighting against the two most destructive forces in the universe: entropy and human stupidity.—Damian Conway

In reply to Re^2: one perl line to write, compile and launch cpan search app for mac (fathom) by usemodperl
in thread Why is it so easy to make Perl apps for Apple Mac? by Anonymous Monk

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