Hey folks! I'm working on a module which embeds Xmms::Remote, starting with something like this: 
sub new {
   my ($class) = @_;

   my ($self, $pid);
   $self = bless +{}, $class;
   $self->{xmms} = Xmms::Remote->new;
   # ... more stuff ...
}

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I found myself wanting to pass a bunch of methods directly into my embedded object, writing one-line methods like this: 
sub is_paused { $_[0]->{xmms}->is_paused; }
sub is_playing { $_[0]->{xmms}->is_playing; }
sub pause { $_[0]->{xmms}->pause; }
sub play { $_[0]->{xmms}->play; }
sub stop { $_[0]->{xmms}->stop; }

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I was just about to add another, when I said to myself, "$self, this is stupid. If you used AUTOLOAD correctly, you could automatically have any unrecognized method automatically called on your embedded object". So, I started to try to write such an AUTOLOAD, and I realized I was confused about AUTOLOAD and didn't know how to do it. This is how far I got: 
sub AUTOLOAD {
   my ($self) = @_;
   my ($method);
   ($method = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/.*://;
   if ($self->{xmms}->can($method)) {
      $self->{xmms}->

}

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That's when I realized, whoa, I have the method in a variable name, that's whack! Since perl often DWIMs, I thought I'd try 
      $self->{xmms}->$method;

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but I don't know if that works or not, because I just got another error which is even more confusing: Global symbol "$AUTOLOAD" requires explicit package name at AlterniRATE/Player.pm line 75.
AlterniRATE/Player.pm had compilation errors.
Whoa ... I thought $AUTOLOAD was supposed to be a special magic variable! I guess I just totally don't know what I'm doing, and for the moment will return to the ugly brute-force method. Can anyone enlighten me as to how I can get AUTOLOAD to do what I want here?

Gee, I guess my oversight was pretty simple (I knew I was just being stupid) but I'm glad I asked, because the responses have all been very enlightening. Thanks, guys!

In reply to AUTOLOAD question by forrest

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