0: #!/usr/bin/perl
1: 
2: use Pod::Text;
3: 
4: &pods unless $name = shift;
5: 
6: print "Greetings, $name.  I'm quite pleased to meet you.\n";
7: 
8: # I use the following little 6-line snippet in almost every script 
9: # I write for public consumption. It allows me to use embedded 
10: # POD documentation for the script as its usage statement, 
11: # saving me the trouble of maintaining separate documentation 
12: # and usage statements and allowing me to easily create HTML, 
13: # LaTeX, PDF, or whatever kind of documentation for the script 
14: # that I like.
15: 
16: # It's so trivial, it almost seems silly to post it; however, 
17: # I've found it to be quite useful.
18: 
19: sub pods {
20: 
21:         my $message = shift;
22:         print "\n$message\n\n" if $message;
23:         open(POD,$0) || die "Cannot print help text for $0:  $!";
24:         Pod::Text->new()->parse_from_filehandle(\*POD);
25:         close POD;
26:         exit;
27: 
28: } # end sub pods
29: 
30: __END__
31: 
32: =head1 DESCRIPTION
33: 
34:   hello.pl - A Perl script to print a greeting
35: 
36: =head1 USAGE
37: 
38:   ./hello.pl name
39: 
40: where C<name> is your name.
41: 
42: =cut