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autarch (914)

autarch
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http://www.vegguide.org/

Journal of autarch (914)

Wednesday March 13, 2002
12:15 PM

SCARY MODULE!

[ #3490 ]

So some guy named Mark Veltzer released a distro on CPAN called "Meta".

Meta includes several _hundred_ modules!

I've looked at a few so far and many were basically empty, like Meta::Tool::Tar which appears to be a placeholder without any working code. Others add trivial extensions to existing modules like Meta::Visualization::Graph, which subclasses GraphViz to add a single method.

I wonder what exactly prevented him from sending a patch to acme. It's not like acme is inaccessible or a big jerk or something. I sent him a patch for GraphViz and he used it with some tweaks and we were all happy. I had the feature I needed, I didn't have any code to maintain, and acme had a slightly more useful module on his hands. Everyone is happy.

Some of the code in Meta might actually be useful on its own, like Meta::Lang::Perl::Pod::Docbook, which is a POD => Docbook translator. It's quite primitive at the moment, but has potential. But do I really need this guy's other 250 or so modules to use it?

Someone restrict this man's access to hallucinogenic drugs before he codes again!


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  • It's hard to believe, it's hard to describe... I think that one really needs to see it [cpan.org] to grasp the sheer size of it! It's quite simply amazing.

    --

    -- Robin Berjon [berjon.com]

    • So after I wrote my journal entry I couldn't stop looking (you know, like a traffic accident ;) There's some really great stuff in there.

      Meta::Imdb::Get - for getting info off of IMDB.

      Meta::Math::Matrix - cause once you have that IMDB data you just _know_ you'll want to do some matrix math with it!

      Of course, the matrix module doesn't implement any useful methods, like multiplication. It just has a constructor and methods to get and set individual matrix elements.

      Then, there's the Meta::Ds classes, inc
      • Meta::Imdb::Get - for getting info off of IMDB. Meta::Math::Matrix - cause once you have that IMDB data you just _know_ you'll want to do some matrix math with it!

        Didn't you know? That method is specially designed for information retrieved from IMDB about The Matrix. :-P

        Sorry, I couldn't resist

  • The README [cpan.org] isn't exactly enlightening either.

    The idea is to provide a full class library to accomplish many tasks.

    But what sort of tasks?

  • Its art. You need ask no more. It's just art.

    This module is EXACTLY what I've been looking for all my life.
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