using Win32::OLE

[David Waldo]

All -

In last night's meeting I mentioned that Damian Conway, the author
of "Object Oriented Programming in Perl" wrote a wickedly funny
module, Coy.pm, which won the Best New Utility Award at the 
1999 Perl Conference. A paper describing the module can be found at:

	http://conferences.oreilly.com/cd/perl3/user_papers/conway/coy/Paper.html

Many of the presentations and all of the papers from the conference
are at:

	http://conferences.oreilly.com/cd/perl3/


Here is a exceprt from the Sample Results section. Enjoy.

- Dave Waldo




This section gives some 
examples of the haiku 
that Coy produces. 

Given the error 
message: die "Bad argument", 
Coy generates this: 

    A pair of lovers 
    quarrel beside a stream. Four 
    thrushes fly away.

Note the allusion 
to the bad argument in 
the error message. 

Haiku are never 
repeated. A second die 
"Bad argument" gives: 

    Two old men fighting 
    under a sycamore tree. 
    Homer Simpson sighs.

In contrast, for a 
croak "Missing file", Coy reflects 
the sense of loss with: 

    Bankei weeping by 
    a lake. Ryonen dying. 
    Seven howling bears.

Coy cannot always 
achieve this high level of 
(oblique) relevance. 

For example, it 
also produced this response 
to croak "Missing file": 

    A swallow nesting 
    in the branches of an elm 
    tree. A waiting fox.

Sometimes Coy's output 
suggests a macabre sense 
of humour, as in: 

    A wolf leaps under 
    a willow. Two old men sit 
    under the willow.

In other cases, 
its inscrutability 
is most authentic: 

    Two young women near 
    Bill Clinton's office. A cat 
    waiting by a pond.