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