Hello erudite Monks and Nuns,
I found a CPAN module recently that really makes me happy. As a habitual serial installer of anything from the CPAN that looks interesting, I sometimes forget what I have installed before I can start to write some code using it. Enter Module::List; which showed up as "recent" on MetaCPAN with the release of version 0.004. There is also a close relative, let's call it a talented nephew, Module::List::WithPath, which is based on Module::List and adds the ability to discover the filesystem path location of each module found. At the time of this writing, module Module::List::WithPath is at version 0.003002.
But we're ahead of ourselves. What Module::List does is a lookup on the prefix given as an argument to the sole subroutine in the module, list_modules, returning differing information depending on the options given (as an anonymous hash) -- for example, all the installed module names with that prefix (I won't describe every bit of the functionality or API since that's all right there on MetaCPAN for the reader to peruse). I'll make the observation that the API is a bit unusual: instead of providing a separate subroutine (either exported or not) for each kind of data sought, the module provides options (as just described above). The most interesting option (imho) is the first listed in the POD, list_modules. The return data is a hash reference with keys corresponding to module names found in the abstract namespace (regardless of where the modules were found on the filesystem). The values of the hash elements are in each case the empty string. In the case of the talented nephew, Module::List::WithPath, the element values are, instead, the filesystem locations of the modules found. Very nifty.
I just find these modules really neat and they fill a gap that I've been feeling for a long time. Quirks (arguably) of implementation aside, the modules have enabled me to write simple short scripts to query my Perl installation and discover what has lain there, waiting but forgotten.
Apr 03, 2025 at 23:54 UTC
A just machine to make big decisions
Programmed by fellows (and gals) with compassion and vision
We'll be clean when their work is done
We'll be eternally free yes, and eternally young
Donald Fagen —> I.G.Y.
(Slightly modified for inclusiveness)
