SPUG: Hey, buddy, I'm *talking* here!

[Damian Conway]

Dear SPUGsters,

There seems to be no clear consensus on what I should talk about at my
second evening talk on July 6 (the one in Redmond, WA).

Tim suggested that we could simplify the process if I posted two
possible topics and then you just chose between them.

For each talk, I've provided both a psychodelic left-brain panegyric and
a pin-striped right-brain abstract. Feel free to read whichever one
unnerves you less. The actual talk will try to steer a course *between*
the hysterical and the catatonic.

If you're intending to come to the Redmond talk, *please* reply to
this message (which reply will go to Tim) and indicate either "Talk A"
or "Talk B".

Thanks,

Damian
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 name: Damian Conway                           addr: School of Computer Science
email: damian at conway.org                             and Software Engineering
  web: http://www.cs.monash.edu.au/~damian           Monash University
  fax: +61-3-9905-5146                               Clayton 3168, AUSTRALIA

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    Proposed Talk A
    
            <TITLE>
                "Multimethods: Polymorphism Gone Mad"
            </TITLE>

            <RIGHT_LOBE>
                Tonight: A world gone crazy, as method calls throw off their
                shackles and start telling objects "Who ya gonna call?"
                Plus the secret shame of subroutine overloading. In Perl!
            </RIGHT_LOBE>

            <LEFT_LOBE>
                A sober and serious talk discussing the technique of
                multiple dispatch of object methods, and its
                implementation in Perl. Ad hoc approaches will be
                described and dismissed, and use of the
                Class::Multimethods module advocated and explained.
                The implications of the multimethod construct as a
                mechanism for signature-based subroutine overloading
                will also be mirthlessly pondered.
            </LEFT_LOBE>

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    Proposed Talk B: 

            <TITLE>
                "Stwing machink for tha leksicograficly chalunged"
            </TITLE>

            <RIGHT_LOBE>
                See Jarrko's String::Approx and Damian's
                String::EditDistance modules battle for supremacy
                amongst the illiterate! And on the same bill:
                "Michael Mania II"! A no-holds-barred, knock-down-drag-out
                free-for-all as Michael Schwern's Text::Metaphone
                takes on Mike Stok's Text::Soundex.
                Which of these four CPAN heavyweights will emerge as the
                Fuzzy String Comparison Champion of the World???
            </RIGHT_LOBE>

            <LEFT_LOBE>
                A grave and earnest analysis of the information theory
                underlying Approximate String Matching and Phonetic
                Approximate String Matching. A careful comparison of the
                various relevant modules available on the CPAN, with
                particular attention to efficiency, portability,
                robustness, and task-orientation.
            </LEFT_LOBE>

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