  The gravitational collapse of spherical, barotropic perfect fluids is
analyzed here. For the first time, the final state of these systems is studied
without resorting to simplifying assumptions - such as self-similarity - using
a new approach based on non-linear o.d.e. techniques, and formation of naked
singularities is shown to occur for solutions such that the mass function is
analytic in a neighborhood of the spacetime singularity.
