It really depends on what you are trying to do. The CGI modules should generally be used for heavy-duty CGI scripts. For simple scripts, it is far easier and quicker to roll your own or use CGI Lite (current version is v1.62 http://bytor.engr.wisc.edu/pub/perl/cpan/authors/id/SHGUN/CGI_Lite-1.62.pm.gz). If you really want, you can even use the Perl 4 cgi-lib.pl library (http://www.bio.cam.ac.uk/web/form.html).
Most modules have manpages embedded within the module itself. If that is the case, you can use the pod2man script to view the manpage:
% pod2man module.pm | nroff -man | more
The most widely used CGI library for Perl 4 is cgi-lib.pl written by Steven Benner (http://www.bio.cam.ac.uk/web/form.html). It is very, very simple to use!
(http://www-genome.wi.mit.edu/WWW/tools/scripting/CGIperl/)
These modules allow you to create and decode forms as well as maintain state between forms.
(http://bytor.engr.wisc.edu/pub/perl/cpan/authors/id/SHGUN/CGI_Lite-1.62.pm.gz)
An alternative to the CGI::* modules. It is a glorious Perl 5 version of cgi-lib.pl.
Both of these modules have the ability to decode the multipart/form-data encoding scheme.
You can use cgi-lib.pl (http://www.bio.cam.ac.uk/web/form.html), which is not object oriented, because it was designed for Perl 4.
But, using the Perl 5 O-O libraries is a piece of cake! Here is a simple example that uses CGI Lite (http://bytor.engr.wisc.edu/pub/perl/cpan/authors/id/SHGUN/CGI_Lite-1.62.pm.gz) to print out form data:
#!/usr/local/bin/perl5 use CGI_Lite; print "Content-type: text/plain", "\n\n"; $cgi = new CGI_Lite () $cgi->parse_form_data (); $cgi->print_form_data (); exit (0);