What I am trying to ^{succeeding in} do^ing, is encapsulate several hundred datatypes (think C-style structs and unions) in such a way that they can be imported into a program on demand without requiring mass pre-declaration as would be the case with

use My::Types qw[typeA typeB typeZZY];
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or

use My::Type::typeA;
use My::Type::typeB;
use My::Type::typeC;
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or

use My::Types::Factory;

my $typeA = My::Type::Factory->new( 'TypeA' );
my $typeB = My::Type::Factory->new( 'TypeB' );
my $typeZZY = My::Type::Factory->new( 'TypeZZY' );

my $varTypeA = $typeA->new();
my $varTypeB = $typeB->new();
my $varTypeZZY = $type->new();
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I also don't wish to have every program carry the weight of several hundred unused types because it uses 1 of them, hence the need to use the autoload. My inspiration comes from the POSIX package.

I need the types to each be in a seperate package space because each type will have the same set of methods.

So, whilst I am quite happy with the technique I outlined from the use and implementation point of view, I am a little concerned that the first variation my consume more "glob space" than is necessary, and if the second variation would save any substantial amount of memory and/ or prevent or reduce any performance hit that (may or may not) result from the first, then I would accept the slightly more verbose syntax of the second over the first.

However, if there is little or no difference in the overheads of the two variations, then I will go with the former's reduce syntax.

Now, if you can show me an efficient way of doing this with "a hash and a single package" I'm all ears?