meta(1) - Linux man page

Name

meta - A simple front-end to Acme::MetaSyntactic

Synopsis

meta [ --whitespace|ws ] [ --help ] [ --version ] [ --remote ] [ --check ] [ --sources ] [ --category category ] theme[/category] [ count ]

Description

meta is a simple front-end to Acme::MetaSyntactic.

A few examples should make it easy to understand what it does and how it works:

$ meta
baz
$ meta batman
powie
$ meta donmartin 3
kloong
thoof_foing
weeooweeeoooo
$ meta -ws browser 4
arachne netscape voyager w3m

In short, the default theme is "foo", the default count is 1, the default separator is $/, but you can replace it by whitespace with --ws.

Command-line Options

The following command-line options are available:

Metasyntactic options

--whitespace, --ws

Print all items on a single line, separated by space.

--remote

Fetch the remote list (if available) and print it.

--check

Fetch the remote list (if available) and print only the differences betwen the current list and the remote list (items are prefixed by "+" and "-").

Option added by Abigail.

The output of this option is affected by the --whitespace option.

--category category

Only select items in the given category (for "Acme::MetaSyntactic::MultiList" subclasses). If not given, use the default category.

Silently fallbacks to the default if the category doesn't exist.

Another way to ask for a specific category is to skip the --category option and directly ask for "theme/category". Note that you cannot use both calling conventions simultaneously.

Informative options

The program will exit if any of these options is selected. However, these options can be combined.
--themes: Print the list of available themes.
--sources: Print the URLs used by a remote list.
--version: Print version information.
--help: Print a short help message.

Success Stories

meta is the script of choice for a new generation of hackers. Here are a few comments from satisfied users:

• "Acme::MetaSyntactic" makes me more productive when I have to write regression tests for my Perl modules. No more do I spend time looking for variable names! It simply changed my life.
-- Rafael Garcia-Suarez, pumpking, used AMS when writing tests for "Sub::Identify".
• "Acme::MetaSyntactic" gave names for regression tests in the Perl core
See <http://public.activestate.com/cgi-bin/perlbrowse?patch=26370>.
• Your module has been a wonderful timesaver for me. How much time I used to spend on thinking about good and meaningful variable names, and now I have them at the snap of a finger!
-- Gisbert W. Selke

Examples Of Use

Ever needed to debug with the help of a few "print()" statements? Simply map some keystrokes to insert a warning where you want it. With meta, you will never need to think about what write in the string argument:

nmap _wa :r!meta donmartin<CR>iwarn"<Esc>A";<Esc>==

(This mapping kindly given by Rafael Garcia-Suarez.)

Author

Philippe "BooK" Bruhat, "<book@cpan.org>".

Copyright

License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.