<s>
Plain	B-Language
Old	I-Language
Documentation	I-Language
(	O
pod	O
)	O
is	O
a	O
lightweight	B-Protocol
markup	I-Protocol
language	I-Protocol
used	O
to	O
document	O
the	O
Perl	B-Language
programming	I-Language
language	I-Language
as	O
well	O
as	O
Perl	B-Language
modules	I-Language
and	O
programs	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
An	O
extended	O
version	O
of	O
pod	O
that	O
supports	O
tables	O
and	O
footnotes	O
called	O
PseudoPOD	O
has	O
been	O
used	O
by	O
O'Reilly	O
&	O
Associates	O
to	O
produce	O
several	O
Perl	B-Language
books	O
,	O
most	O
notably	O
Programming	O
Perl	B-Language
by	O
Larry	O
Wall	O
,	O
Tom	O
Christiansen	O
,	O
and	O
Jon	O
Orwant	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Pod	O
makes	O
it	O
easy	O
to	O
write	O
manual	B-Protocol
pages	I-Protocol
,	O
which	O
are	O
well	O
suited	O
to	O
user-oriented	O
documents	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
contrast	O
,	O
other	O
documentation	O
systems	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
Python	O
's	O
Docstring	B-Language
or	O
Java	O
's	O
Javadoc	B-Language
,	O
though	O
they	O
can	O
be	O
used	O
for	O
user	O
documentation	O
,	O
are	O
designed	O
to	O
facilitate	O
generating	O
developer-oriented	O
documentation	O
about	O
the	O
source	O
code	O
for	O
a	O
software	O
project	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Pod	O
is	O
the	O
language	O
used	O
for	O
most	O
documentation	O
in	O
the	O
Perl	B-Language
world	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
includes	O
Perl	B-Language
itself	O
,	O
nearly	O
all	O
publicly	O
released	O
modules	B-Language
,	O
many	O
scripts	O
,	O
most	O
design	O
documents	O
,	O
many	O
articles	O
on	O
and	O
other	O
Perl-related	O
web	O
sites	O
,	O
</s>
<s>
and	O
the	O
Parrot	B-Language
virtual	I-Language
machine	I-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
Instead	O
,	O
it	O
is	O
read	O
with	O
the	O
perldoc	O
tool	O
,	O
or	O
converted	O
into	O
Unix	O
man	B-Protocol
pages	I-Protocol
or	O
Web-standard	O
HTML	O
pages	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
is	O
also	O
possible	O
to	O
use	O
pod	O
in	O
other	O
contexts	O
than	O
Perl	B-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
For	O
example	O
,	O
to	O
add	O
simple	O
documentation	O
to	O
bash	B-Operating_System
scripts	I-Operating_System
,	O
which	O
can	O
then	O
be	O
easily	O
converted	O
to	O
man	B-Protocol
pages	I-Protocol
.	O
</s>
<s>
Such	O
uses	O
rely	O
on	O
language-specific	O
hacks	O
to	O
hide	O
the	O
pod	O
part(s )	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
(	O
in	O
bash	B-Operating_System
)	O
prefixing	O
the	O
POD	O
section	O
with	O
the	O
line	O
:	O
<<=	O
cut	O
which	O
works	O
by	O
calling	O
bash	B-Operating_System
's	O
no-op	B-Language
:	O
command	O
,	O
with	O
the	O
whole	O
block	O
of	O
Pod	O
as	O
a	O
here	O
document	O
as	O
input	O
to	O
it	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
interpreter	B-Application
's	O
parser	B-Language
is	O
designed	O
to	O
ignore	O
pod	O
in	O
Perl	B-Language
code	O
.	O
)	O
</s>
<s>
Pod	O
can	O
easily	O
be	O
converted	O
to	O
other	O
formats	O
,	O
for	O
example	O
some	O
of	O
the	O
various	O
Wiki	B-Protocol
formats	O
like	O
:	O
WikiWikiWeb	B-Language
,	O
Kwiki	O
,	O
TWiki	B-Language
,	O
UseModWiki	B-Language
,	O
TiddlyWiki	B-Language
,	O
Textile	B-Language
,	O
MediaWiki	B-Application
,	O
MoinMoin	B-Application
or	O
Confluence	B-Protocol
using	O
Pod::Simple::Wiki	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Pod	O
files	O
are	O
written	O
in	O
an	O
ASCII-compatible	O
encoding	B-General_Concept
,	O
such	O
as	O
Latin-1	O
or	O
UTF-8	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
pod	O
parser	B-Language
will	O
then	O
assume	O
that	O
all	O
following	O
lines	O
are	O
pod	O
,	O
until	O
it	O
encounters	O
a	O
line	O
consisting	O
of	O
the	O
"	O
=	O
cut	O
"	O
directive	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Any	O
content	O
following	O
that	O
is	O
ignored	O
until	O
the	O
parser	B-Language
encounters	O
another	O
pod	O
directive	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Thus	O
,	O
pod	O
can	O
be	O
intermixed	O
with	O
executable	O
source	O
code	O
if	O
the	O
language	O
's	O
parser	B-Language
knows	O
how	O
to	O
recognize	O
and	O
ignore	O
pod	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Paragraphs	O
that	O
begin	O
with	O
whitespace	O
characters	O
—	O
tabs	O
or	O
spaces	O
—	O
are	O
considered	O
to	O
be	O
"	O
verbatim	O
paragraphs	O
"	O
,	O
and	O
are	O
left	O
completely	O
unformatted	O
;	O
these	O
are	O
used	O
for	O
sample	O
code	O
,	O
ASCII	B-Protocol
art	O
,	O
etc	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
latter	O
feature	O
allows	O
for	O
special	O
formatting	O
to	O
be	O
given	O
to	O
parsers	B-Language
that	O
support	O
it	O
.	O
</s>
