A possible PDL::SampleData implementation using File::ShareDir

SampleData.pm

package PDL::SampleData;
use strict;
use warnings;

use Carp;

use PDL;
use File::ShareDir 'module_dir';
use File::chdir;

sub get {
  my $filename = shift;
  
  local $CWD = module_dir 'PDL::SampleData';

  unless ( -e $filename ) {
    carp "Could not find file $filename in $CWD";
    return 0;
  }

  return rfits $filename;
}
sub available {
  local $CWD = module_dir 'PDL::SampleData';
  my @valid_extensions = qw/fits/;

  opendir( my $dh, $CWD);

  my @files;
  while (my $filename = readdir $dh) {
    push @files, $filename
      if grep { $filename =~ /\.$_$/i } @valid_extensions;
  }

  return @files;
}

1;

__END__

Makefile.PL will need lines

 use File::ShareDir::Install;
 install_share module => 'My::Module' => 'sample-data';

where m51.fits is in the folder sample-data relative to the Makefile.PL

Dependencies for File::ShareDir and File::ShareDir::Install will need to be added

__POD__

=head1 NAME

PDL::SampleData - Easy access to data used in the examples and the L<PDL::Book>.

=head1 SYNOPSIS

 use PDL::ShareDir;
 my $pdl = PDL::ShareDir::get('m51.fits');

=head1 DESCRIPTION

C<PDL::SampleData> allows easy access to the data needed to follow along with the examples and the L<PDL::Book>.

=head1 FUNCTIONS 

Nothing is exported, use the fully qualified name to access the function.

=head2 PDL::SampleData::get( filename )

Takes the name (with extension) of the file requested. On success it returns the data as a L<PDL> object. On failure a warning is issued and a false value is returned.

=head2 PDL::SampleData::available( filename )

Takes no arguments, returns the sample data files that are available by using C<get>.

=head1 AUTHOR

Joel Berger, E<lt>joel.a.berger@gmail.comE<gt>

=head1 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright (C) 2012 by Joel Berger

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the same terms as Perl itself.