NAME
Class::Std::Utils - Utility subroutines for building "inside-out" objects
VERSION
This document describes Class::Std::Utils version 0.0.1
SYNOPSIS
use Class::Std::Utils;
# Constructor for anonymous scalars...
my $new_object = bless anon_scalar(), $class;
# Convert an object reference into a unique ID number...
my $ID_num = ident $new_object;
# Extract class-specific arguments from a hash reference...
my %args = extract_initializers_from($arg_ref);
DESCRIPTION
This module provides three utility subroutines that simplify the creation of "inside-out" classes. See Chapters 15 and 16 of "Perl Best Practices" (O'Reilly, 2005) for details.
INTERFACE
anon_scalar()
-
This subroutine is always exported. It takes no arguments and returns a reference to an anonymous scalar, suitable for blessing as an object.
ident()
-
This subroutine is always exported. It takes one argument--a reference-- and acts exactly like the
Scalar::Util::refaddr()
, returning a unique integer value suitable for identifying the referent. extract_initializers_from()
-
This subroutine is always exported. It takes one argument--a hash reference-- and returns a "flattened" set of key/value pairs extracted from that hash.
The typical usage is:
my %class_specific_args = extract_initializers_from($args_ref);
The argument hash is flattened as described in Chapter 16 of "Perl Best Practices":
The subroutine is always called with the original multi-level argument hash from the constructor. It then looks up the class's own name (i.e. its
caller
package) in the argument hash, to see if an initializer with that key has been defined. Finally,extract_initializers_for()
returns the flattened set of key/value pairs for the class's initializer set, by appending the class-specific initializer subhash to the end of the original generic initializer hash. Appending the specific initializers after the generic ones means that any key in the class- specific set will override any key in the generic set, thereby ensuring that the most relevant initializers are always selected, but that generic initializers are still available where no class-specific value has been passed in.In other words, given:
my $arg_ref = { key_1 => 'generic value 1', key_2 => 'generic value 2', 'Base::Class' => { key_1 => 'base value 1' }, 'Der::Class' => { key_1 => 'der value 1' key_2 => 'der value 2' }, }; package Base::Class; use Class::Std::Utils; my %base_args = extract_initializers_from($arg_ref); package Der::Class; use Class::Std::Utils; my %der_args = extract_initializers_from($arg_ref);
then
%base_args
would be initialized to:( key_1 => 'base value 1', key_2 => 'generic value 2', 'Base::Class' => { key_1 => 'base value 1', }, 'Der::Class' => { key_1 => 'der value 1', key_2 => 'der value 2', }, )
whilst
%der_args
would be initialized to:( key_1 => 'der value 1', key_2 => 'der value 2', 'Base::Class' => { key_1 => 'base value 1', }, 'Der::Class' => { key_1 => 'der value 1', key_2 => 'der value 2', }, )
That is, the top-level entries would be replaced by any second-level entries with the same key that appear in a top-level entry of the same name as the calling package.
This means that each class can just refer to
$args{key_1}
and$args{key_2}
and be confident that the resulting values will be the most specific available for that class.
DIAGNOSTICS
%s initializer must be a nested hash
-
Thrown by
extract_initializers_from()
. You specified a top-level key that has the same name of the current class, but the value of that key wasn't a hash reference.
CONFIGURATION AND ENVIRONMENT
Class::Std::Utils requires no configuration files or environment variables.
DEPENDENCIES
Thsi module requires both the Scalar::Util
and List::Util
modules, which are standard in Perl 5.8 and available from the CPAN for earlier versions of Perl.
INCOMPATIBILITIES
None reported.
SEE ALSO
The Class::Std
module
"Perl Best Practices", O'Reilly, 2005.
BUGS AND LIMITATIONS
No bugs have been reported.
Please report any bugs or feature requests to bug-class-std-utils@rt.cpan.org
, or through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org.
AUTHOR
Damian Conway <DCONWAY@cpan.org>
LICENCE AND COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2005, Damian Conway <DCONWAY@cpan.org>
. All rights reserved.
This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY
BECAUSE THIS SOFTWARE IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE SOFTWARE, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE SOFTWARE "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE SOFTWARE PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR, OR CORRECTION.
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