"Module::Starter->import"

Module::Starter provides an import method, the arguments to which are plugins, in the order in which they should be loaded. If no plugins are given, Module::Starter::Simple (and only Module::Starter::Simple) is loaded.

By default, the given modules are required and arranged in an is-a chain. That is, Module::Starter subclasses the last plugin given, which subclasses the second-to-last, up to the first plugin given, which is the base class. If a plugin provides a "load_plugins" method, however, the remaining plugins to be loaded are passed to that method, which is responsible for loading the rest of the plugins.

This architecture suggests two kinds of plugins:

engine plugins

An engine is a plugin that stands alone, implementing the public "create_distro" method and all the functionality required to carry out that implementation. The only engine included with Module::Starter is Module::Starter::Simple, and I'm not sure any more will be seen in the wild any time soon.

plain old plugins

Other plugins are designed to subclass an engine and alter its behavior, just as a normal subclass alters its parent class's. These plugins may add features to Module::Starter engines, or may just provide general APIs for other plugins to exploit (like Module::Starter::Plugin::Template.)

The template plugin is a simple example of a plugin that alters an engine to accept further plugins. Other plugins like template will probably be written in the near future, and plugins that exploit the API provided by Module::Starter::Plugin::Template will be available on the CPAN.