(You should have closed the <code> tag after the semicolon.)

I've read the module's documentation and I still don' get it. I mean the whole point of XML::Simple (as I understand it) was to convert as simply as possible a XML into a plain old convenient Perl data structure. And here they wrap it up again in some classes ...

Anyway the module hadn't been touched since 2005, the docs are lacking, it had never (as far as I can tell) been evangelized anywhere ... I think it's best to stay away. Unless it really exactly matches your needs. You would have problems finding people that can help you with any problems.

Which means that my question is ... what are actually your needs? What other modules did you consider using? You are quite likely to find help with XML::LibXML, XML::Twig, XML::Simple(some of the responses telling you not to use it) and XML::Rules, any of them might be the right one for you?