I am the author of FEAR::API. The module was originated from my routine site scraping jobs. My job was to fetch pages from various commercial sites (with or without no RSS feeds), and extract detailed product specifications. I used WWW::Mechanize + Template::Extract in the first place, but I became a little annoyed at repeating some things. I tried to join common code sections in different scripts into a file or into a small module, but I didn't get really satisfied. So, I chose to work on the interface to get a clean solution, though I was aware that there were many other ways. I thought if I could create a module to do site scraping specifically with minimal code writing, then it would much speed up scraper generation. So, I invented FEAR::API, and my major concern was reducing code size. Creating confusing semantics is just the side effect.

The way I hope you all to see FEAR::API is as a sublanguage, a sublanguage specifically for site scraping. FEAR::API joins together web page fetching, document processing, and database connections into a simple interface. And, what I mainly expect users to use the module is not create site scraping modules, but to create site scraping scripts. I admit that perhaps I might have overloaded too much and messed the perl you are already used to, but if you can see the module is aimed at doing site scraping only, I guess, things won't be so unacceptable. If you do insist you don't accept overloaded operators that FEAR::API offers, you can just drop it and kick it away. I am not raising any competition or flame about what module you should use or replacing any legacy tool like LWP. What I do with FEAR::API is just provide you with an alternative. (But, unfortunately, as you may see, the documentation is not going well. :-/).

You may go on to this node or just contact me (or blame me) via email if you are still interested in FEAR::API

By the way, I have a session at OSDC.TW this year, and will put my slides of FEAR::API online later.