An AUTOLOAD for dbms_random_random has no (easy) way to figure out if it is supposed to call dbms_random.random or dbms.random_random.

Well actually you have the same problem if you are exporting functions with the added disadvantage of tons of redundant code.

sub AUTOLOAD {
    my ( undef, $funcname ) = split '::', $AUTOLOAD;
    my $mapping = { foo => 'foo.bar',
                    bar => 'foobar',
                  };
    if ( exists $mapping->{$funcname} ) {
        # exec $mapping->{$funcname} 
    }
    else {
        die "Can't do $funcname, NFI how to!\n";
    }
}
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I said: An AUTOLOAD for dbms_random_random has no (easy) way to figure out if it is supposed to call dbms_random.random or dbms.random_random.

You said: Well actually you have the same problem if you are exporting functions with the added disadvantage of tons of redundant code.

I think I could get around the naming problem by explicitly exporting subroutines (and not using AUTOLOAD)

use MyProcedures qw (dbms_random.random );

# this creates:
   sub CallingPackage::dbms_random_random {
       # call dbms_random.random in the database
   }
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So the subroutine you get has actually a different name than what you asked for, which admittedly is a bit strange.

I do not get the part about the "tons of redundant code". The subroutines are only created when imported, and they are very slim (just one peppered subroutine call each).

I put the module in my scratchpad if you want to have a look. Unless it turns out to be totally flawed I want to publish it to CPAN this week.

PL/SQL procedures can have characters in them that are not allowed for Perl subroutines, most importantly a dot.

*{"dbms_random.random"} = sub { print "I am dbms_random.random\n" }
"dbms_random.random"->();
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