{ package Animal; use Carp qw( croak ); sub new { bless \my $scalar, shift }; } { package Sheep; use base 'Animal'; sub makes_sound { "baa" } } { package Cow; use base 'Animal'; sub makes_sound { "moo" } } { package Pig; use base 'Animal'; sub makes_sound { "oink" } } #### use Devel::Symdump; sub make_animal { my $sound = shift; my @animals_that_make_sound = grep { eval { $_->isa( 'Animal' ) && $_->makes_sound eq $sound } } Devel::Symdump->rnew->packages; die "more than one animal can $sound\n" if @animals_that_make_sound > 1; die "no animals $sound\n" unless @animals_that_make_sound; return $animals_that_make_sound[0]->new; } print make_animal( 'oink' );