NAME
    Acme::Tao - enforce proper respect for the Tao

SYNOPSIS
     use Acme::Tao;

    or

     use Acme::Tao qw(something_that_must_not_be_constant);

DESCRIPTION
    Everyone knows that the Tao is not constant. But some people just might
    not get it. To make sure no one tries to use constant Tao in a program
    with your module, put a "use Acme::Tao" at the top of your code. If Tao
    has been made constant by time your module is used, Acme::Tao will die
    with a nice message. Note that the package in which Tao is constant is
    irrelavent.

    As Lao-tzu teaches, "The name that can be named is not the constant
    name" and Acme::Tao can *also* be used to check for any other symbols
    you might not want to have as constants.

    For example:

     use Acme::Tao qw(foo);

    This will die if "foo" is defined as a constant in the current package.

     use Acme::Tao qw(::foo);

    This will die if "foo" is defined as a constant in the "main::" package.
    This is the same as "main::foo".

    If Acme::Tao is checking for particular symbols, it will not check for a
    constant Tao.

MESSAGES
    The messages are stored in "@__PACKAGE__::messages". Feel free to add to
    them. You can even subclass Acme::Tao:

     package My::Tao;

     use Acme::Tao ();
     use vars(@messages @ISA);

     @ISA = qw(Acme::Tao);

     @messages = ( ... );

     1;
     __END__

    The messages will come from the appropriate package and are not
    cumulative.

AUTHOR
    James G. Smith, <jsmith@cpan.org>

    I owe Kip Hampton a big thank you for mentioning the idea in passing and
    assisting with parts of the documentation.

    The messages are lifted from the "fortune" data files.

COPYRIGHT
    Copyright (C) 2002 James G. Smith. This module is free software. It may
    be used, redistributed, and/or modified under the same terms as Perl.