NAME
    Data::Vitals - The Perl "Vital Statistics" Library

DESCRIPTION
    The world of clothing and fashion works to an annoyingly anacronistic
    and complicated set of measurements. The Perl "Vital Statistics" Library
    is an attempt to create a comprehensive set of classes, object and
    algorithms for working with human-describing data such as height, body
    measurements, shoe, bra and other clothing sizes.

    It is not intended to be the end to a means, or the solution to a
    specific problem, but rather a general package that can be used to build
    more specific packages. It is intended that the library should be
    extremely flexible, highly extendible, support locales in some form, and
    be heavily unit tested to ensure that packages built on top of
    Data::Vitals have a reliable base.

  Implementation Style
    As is generally the case with complex and twisty subjects (such as
    DateTime) this library is implemented in a highly object-orientated
    form.

    For the sake of completeness we take this to rather extreme levels. For
    example, a Data::Vitals::Waist object specifically refers for a
    measurement of the circumference of the torso taken at a waist.

STATUS
    This contains an implementation of the relatively straight forward
    measurements. Height + the various chest/waist/hip ones.

    Unit testing is up to date, but documentation is not. See the source
    code for how to work with the objects so far defined. Please be aware
    that the API may change.

METHODS
  height $height
    The "height" method creates and returns a height object. It takes as
    argument a "height string".

    Returns a new Data::Vitals::Height object on success, or "undef" on
    error.

  hips $circumference
    The "hips" method creates and returns a hip measurement object. It takes
    as argument a "circumference string".

    Returns a new Data::Vitals::Hips object, or "undef" on error.

  waist $circumference
    The "waist" method creates and returns a waist measurement object. It
    takes as argument a "circumference string".

    Returns a new Data::Vitals::Waist object, or "undef" on error.

  frame $circumference
    The "frame" method creates and returns a "frame" measurement object.
    Mainly used for women, the frame is the circumference of the torso over
    the rib cage, immediately below the breasts and specifically not
    included any breast material. It takes as argument a "circumference
    string".

    Returns a new Data::Vitals::Frame object, or "undef" on error.

  chest $circumference
    The "chest" method creates and returns a chest measurement object. For
    women, this is also known as a "bust" measurement. It takes as argument
    a "circumference string".

    Returns a new Data::Vitals::Chest object on success, or "undef" on
    error.

  bust $circumference
    The "bust" method is an alias for the chest method.

  underarm $circumference
    The "underarm" method creates and returns an underarm measurement
    object, which is the circumference of the torso under the arms and above
    (for women) the breasts. Takes as argument a "circumference string".

    Returns a new Data::Vitals::Underarm object, or "undef" on error.

TO DO
    - Document the measurement classes properly

    - Allow for per-measurement valid ranges, that can be tweaked if needed
    in special cases.

    - Add Data::Vitals::Weight

    - Add Data::Vitals::Bra

    - Add Data::Vitals::Dress (in the various country standards)

    - Add Data::Vitals::Shoe (in the various country standards)

SUPPORT
    Bugs should always be reported via the CPAN bug tracker

    <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Data%3A%3AVitals>

    For other issues, contact the maintainer.

AUTHORS
    Adam Kennedy (Maintainer), <http://ali.as/>, cpan@ali.as

    Thank you to Phase N (<http://phase-n.com/>) for permitting the open
    sourcing and release of this distribution.

COPYRIGHT
    Copyright (c) 2004 Adam Kennedy. All rights reserved. This program is
    free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
    terms as Perl itself.

    The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included
    with this module.

