Edward S. Peschko wrote:
> 
>  I'd like to make perl be able to handle syntax like:
>  
>  @INC = ( '&code:function::name', 'lib', 'lib2' );
>  
>  which would work the same as 
>  
>  @INC = ( sub { }, 'lib', 'lib2' );
>  
>  except be more robust in being able to be evaluated (again, this is hurting in 
>  PAR, which uses code refs in @INC and hence doesn't handle AutoLoader.pm and 
>  Inline.pm very well - both of which use eval "use something" or require "something",
>  which stringifies @INC and hence breaks any code refs in it). 

Wouldn't blessed refs in @INC help, rather than plain coderefs ? (see perlfunc/require)

Regarding stringification, isn't this just a matter of fixing AutoLoader ?
e.g. :


Index: lib/AutoLoader.pm
===================================================================
--- lib/AutoLoader.pm   (revision 2868)
+++ lib/AutoLoader.pm   (working copy)
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ AUTOLOAD {
 
        my ($pkg,$func) = ($sub =~ /(.*)::([^:]+)$/);
        $pkg =~ s#::#/#g;
-       if (defined($filename = $INC{"$pkg.pm"})) {
+       if (defined($filename = $INC{"$pkg.pm"}) and not ref $filename) {
            if ($is_macos) {
                $pkg =~ tr#/#:#;
                $filename =~ s#^(.*)$pkg\.pm\z#$1auto:$pkg:$func.al#s;



>  
>  Anyways, I was trying to hunt down the patch that Ken Fox made on this (back in 
>  1999) and can't find it via google.  Is it available in the perl archives somewhere? 
>  If not, is there a good pointer into the code where it is available?

you can search the Changes* files and use the repository browser :

http://public.activestate.com/cgi-bin/perlbrowse

The diffs are also available on the APC (see perlhack)