Section 7.6. Position

7.6. Position

Place POD as close as possible to the end of the file.

Having decided to keep the documentation together, the obvious question is whether to place it at the start or the end of the file.

There seems to be no particular reason to place it at the beginning. Anyone who is looking at the source is presumably most interested in the code itself, and will appreciate seeing it immediately when they open the file, rather than having to wade though several hundred lines of user documentation first. Moreover, the compiler is able to do a slightly more efficient job it if doesn't have to skip POD sections before it finds any code to compile.

So place your POD at the end of the file, preferably after the _ _END_ _ marker so that the compiler doesn't have to look at it at all. Or, if you're using a _ _DATA_ _ section in your implementation, wrap the documentation in =pod/=cut directives and place it just before the _ _DATA_ _ marker.