/ 
MooseX-Prototype-0.004
River stage zero No dependents
/ MooseX::Prototype

NAME

MooseX::Prototype - prototype-based programming for Moose

SYNOPSIS

From Wikipedia: "Prototype-based programming is a style of object-oriented programming in which classes are not present, and behaviour reuse (known as inheritance in class-based languages) is performed via a process of cloning existing objects that serve as prototypes."

use MooseX::Prototype;

my $Person = object {
   name       => undef,
};

my $Employee = $Person->new->extend({
   job        => undef,
   employer   => undef,
});

my $CivilServant = $Employee->new(
   employer   => 'Government',
);

$CivilServant->extend({
   department => undef,
});

my $bob = $CivilServant->new(
   name       => 'Robert',
   department => 'HMRC',
   job        => 'Tax Inspector',
);

print $bob->dump;

# $VAR1 = bless( {
#    name       => 'Robert',
#    job        => 'Tax Inspector',
#    department => 'HMRC',
#    employer   => 'Government'
# }, 'MooseX::Prototype::__ANON__::0006' );

DESCRIPTION

Due to familiarity with class-based languages such as Java, many programmers assume that object-oriented programming is synonymous with class-based programming. However, class-based programming is just one kind of object-oriented programming style, and other varieties exist such as role-oriented, aspect-oriented and prototype-based programming.

A prominent example of a prototype-based programming language is ECMAScript (a.k.a. Javascript/JScript/ActionScript). ECMAScript does provide a thin class-like layer over the top of its prototype-based OO system, which some (even experienced) ECMAScript developers rarely see beyond.

This module implements a thin prototype-like layer on top of Moose's class/role-based toolkit.

Ex-Nihilo Object Creation

In prototype-based languages, objects are created by cloning other objects. But it's often useful to be able to magic up an object out of nowhere. MooseX::Prototype provides a convenience function to do this:

object \%attrs

Creates a new object with the given attributes. The hash is treated as attribute-name, attribute-value pairs, but any names beginning with "&" are installed as methods. For example:

my $person = object {
   "name"         => "Robert",
   "&changeName"  => sub {
      my ($self, $newname) = @_;
      $self->name($newname);
   },
};

Objects created this way inherit from Moose::Object and perform the MooseX::Prototype::Trait::Object role.

Creating Objects from a Prototype

A prototype is just an object. When you create a new object from it, the prototype will be cloned and the new object will inherit all its attributes and methods.

$prototype->new(%attrs)

Creates a new object which inherits its methods and attributes from $prototype. The %attrs hash can override attribute values from the prototype, but cannot add new attributes or methods.

This method is provided by the MooseX::Prototype::Trait::Object role, so $prototype must perform that role.

$prototype->create_class

Rather than creating a new object from a prototype, this creates a whole new Moose class which can be used to instantiate objects. If you need to create a whole bunch of objects from a prototype, it is probably more efficient to create a class and use that, rather than just calling new a bunch of times.

The class can be given a name, a la:

$prototype->create_class("Foo::Bar");

Otherwise an arbitary name will be generated and returned.

This method is provided by the MooseX::Prototype::Trait::Object role, so $prototype must perform that role.

create_class_from_prototype($prototype)

A convenience function allowing you to use arbitary Moose objects (which lack the create_class method) as prototypes.

Also note:

my $obj = create_class_from_prototype($proto)->new(%attrs);

This function is not exported by default, but can be exported using:

use MooseX::Prototype -all;

Extending Existing Objects

A key feature of Javascript is that new attributes and methods can be given to an object using simple assignment;

my_object.some_attribute = 123;
my_object.some_method = function () { return 456 };

In MooseX::Prototype, there is an explicit syntax for adding new attributes and methods to an object.

$object->extend(\%attrs)

As per ex-nihilo object creation, the attribute hashref can define attribute name-value pairs, or new methods with a leading "&".

HISTORY

Version 0.001 of MooseX::Prototype consisted of just a single function, use_as_prototype which was much the same as create_class_from_prototype.

Version 0.002 is an almost complete rewrite.

BUGS

Please report any bugs to http://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Queue=MooseX-Prototype.

SEE ALSO

Object::Prototype, Class::Prototyped, JE::Object.

AUTHOR

Toby Inkster <tobyink@cpan.org>.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

This software is copyright (c) 2012 by Toby Inkster.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

THIS PACKAGE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.