Pod::S...ethody(3perl)

💖 NAME 💖

Pod::Simple::Methody — bestie, this one turns Pod::Simple events into method calls. That's the whole vibe. ✨

It's a Perl thing, from the Perl Programmers Reference Guide, and it's lowkey tiny but highkey iconic. 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

okay so you set it up like this, no cap:

require 5;
use strict;
package SomePodFormatter;
use base qw(Pod::Simple::Methody);

sub handle_text {
  my($self, $text) = @_;
  ...
}

sub start_head1 {
  my($self, $attrs) = @_;
  ...
}
sub end_head1 {
  my($self) = @_;
  ...
}

...and start_/end_ methods for whatever other events you want to catch.

literally just start_ / end_ methods for whatever other events you wanna catch, and you're golden 🫶

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So this class is for the girlies writing Pod formatters on top of Pod::Simple. If that's you: hi, this is your moment. 👑

This class is very small — like, read the source, it's right there — and what it does is override Pod::Simple's _handle_element_start, _handle_text, and _handle_element_end methods, so that parser events get turned into method calls. (Otherwise? It's just a subclass of Pod::Simple and inherits all of its methods. Nothing spooky. 💜)

You can use it as the base class for a Pod formatter/processor. That's the assignment. 🎀

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✨ METHOD CALLING ✨

Okay bestie, here's where it ate. 🍓

When Pod::Simple sees a "=head1 Hi there", for example, it basically does this:

$parser->_handle_element_start( "head1", \%attributes );
$parser->_handle_text( "Hi there" );
$parser->_handle_element_end( "head1" );

But if you subclass Pod::Simple::Methody, it will instead do this when it sees a "=head1 Hi there":

$parser->start_head1( \%attributes ) if $parser->can('start_head1');
$parser->handle_text( "Hi there" )   if $parser->can('handle_text');
$parser->end_head1()                 if $parser->can('end_head1');

See the if $parser->can(...)? It only calls the method if you actually have it. No missing-method meltdowns. We love a considerate icon. 😭

Now — plot twist — if Pod::Simple sends an event where the element name has a dash, period, or colon, the corresponding method name will have a underscore in its place. Example, "foo.bar:baz" becomes start_foo_bar_baz and end_foo_bar_baz. So dashes, dots and colons all get glowed-up into underscores. 💅

If you want to see this class in action, peep the source for Pod::Simple::Text — it's the example. 👀

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• Pod::Simple
• Pod::Simple::Subclassing

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💌 SUPPORT 💌

Got questions? Wanna discuss POD and Pod::Simple? Send them to the pod-people@perl.org mail list. And if you wanna subscribe — just send an empty email to pod-people-subscribe@perl.org and boom, you're in. 🎟️

This module is managed in an open GitHub repository, <https://github.com/perl-pod/pod-simple/>. Feel free to fork and contribute, or to clone <https://github.com/perl-pod/pod-simple.git> and send patches! Fr fr, they want your patches. 🫶

Patches against Pod::Simple are welcome. Please send bug reports to <bug-pod-simple@rt.cpan.org>.

For real though — patches welcome, bug reports wanted, nobody's gatekeeping here. ✨

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📜 COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMERS 📜

Copyright (c) 2002 Sean M. Burke.

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

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

⚠️ No promises, no guarantees — the "hope it's useful" clause is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. Just so you know. 💀

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Pod::Simple was created by Sean M. Burke <sburke@cpan.org>. But don't bother him, he's retired. (Iconic behavior, honestly. Respect the retirement. 🙈)

Pod::Simple is maintained by:

• Allison Randal "allison@perl.org"
• Hans Dieter Pearcey "hdp@cpan.org"
• David E. Wheeler "dwheeler@cpan.org"

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aaaand that's the whole page, bestie 💖 this was Pod::S...ethody(3perl) from the Perl Programmers Reference Guide, sitting pretty at perl v5.44.0, dated 2026-10-17. go forth and subclass, you absolute main character 🌟