NAME

Class::C3::Adopt::NEXT

SYNOPSIS

    package MyApp::Plugin::FooBar;
    #use NEXT;
    use Class::C3::Adopt::NEXT;

    sub a_method {
        my ($self) = @_;
        # Do some stuff

        # Re-dispatch method
        $self->NEXT::method();
    }

DESCRIPTION

NEXT sucks. I mean, it really really sucks. It was a good solution a few years ago, but isn't any more. It's slow, and the order in which it re-dispatches methods appears random at times. It also encourages bad programming practices, as you end up with code to re-dispatch methods when all you really wanted to do was run some code before or after a method fired.

However, if you have a large application, then weaning yourself off NEXT isn't easy.

This module is intended as a drop-in replacement for NEXT, supporting the same interface, but using Class::C3 to do the hard work. You can then write new code without NEXT, and migrate individual source files to use Class::C3 or method modifiers as appropriate, at whatever pace you're comfortable with.

MIGRATING

There are two main reasons for using NEXT:

Providing plugins which run functionality before/after your methods.

Use Moose and make all of your plugins Moose::Roles, then use method modifiers to wrap methods.

Example:

    package MyApp::Plugin::FooBar;
    use Moose::Role;

    before 'a_method' => {
        my ($self) = @_;
        # Do some stuff
    };

You can then use something like MooseX::Traits or MooseX::Object::Pluggable to load plugins dynamically.

A complex class hierarchy where you actually need multiple dispatch.

Recommended strategy is to find the core class responsible for loading all the other classes in your application and add the following code:

    use MRO::Compat;
    Class::C3::initialize();

after you have loaded all of your modules.

You then add use mro 'c3' to the top of a package as you start converting it, and gradually replace your calls to NEXT::method() with maybe::next::method(), and calls to NEXT::ACTUAL::method() with next::method().

On systems with Class::C3::XS present, this will automatically be used to speed up method re-dispatch. If you are running perl version 5.9.5 or greater then the C3 method resolution algorithm is included in perl. Correct use of MRO::Compat as shown above allows your code to be seamlessly forward and backwards compatible, taking advantage of native versions if available, but falling back to using pure perl Class::C3.

CAVEATS

There are some inheritance hierarchies that it is possible to create which cannot be resolved to a simple C3 hierarchy. In that case, this module will fall back to using NEXT. In this case a warning will be emitted.

Because calculating the MRO of every class every time ->NEXT::foo is used from within it is too expensive, runtime manipulations of @ISA are prohibited.

FUNCTIONS

This module replaces NEXT::AUTOLOAD with it's own version. If warnings are enabled then a warning will be emitted on the first use of NEXT by each package.

SEE ALSO

MRO::Compat and Class::C3 for method re-dispatch and Moose for method modifiers and roles.

NEXT for documentation on the functionality you'll be removing.

AUTHORS

Florian Ragwitz rafl@debian.org

Tomas Doran bobtfish@bobtfish.net

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright (c) 2008 Florian Ragwitz

You may distribute this code under the same terms as Perl itself.