Another object idiom: this one, people tell me is aweful.
I like it a lot because it overcomes something I hate
about Perl: how object instance data requires lots
of funny syntax. This syntax makes it tedious to refactor
code from a subroutine into a method.
Like Abagail's, it uses lexicals to
good effect. It requires some glue, but class fields are
then normal lexical variables. The object is a blessed
hash - but instead of data, the hash holds the methods.
The AUTOLOAD glue just dispatches to the correct hash
element. The glue sets $self, so it is not necessary to
read it off of the argument list manually, should it
be needed (for a method call, for example).
sub new {
my $ERA; my $Strikeouts;
bless {
get_ERA => sub { $ERA },
set_ERA => sub { $ERA = shift },
get_Strikeouts => sub { $Strikeouts },
set_Strikeouts => sub { $Strikeouts = shift },
}, shift();
}
sub AUTOLOAD {
(my $method) = $AUTOLOAD =~ m/::(.*)$/;
return if $method eq 'DESTROY';
our $this = shift;
if(! exists $this->{$method}) {
my $super = "SUPER::$method";
return $this->$super(@_);
}
$this->{$method}->(@_);
}
1;
Primary drawbacks are a small speed penalty - but
for very small data classes like this, I tend to use
rather ordinary blessed arrays, anyway, or psuedohashes,
or "use fields" pragmatic module (all about the same thing
right now - psuedohashes will be going away I'm told).
Code inheritance works - however, fields declared
lexically like this aren't inherited. All data is
essentially private. I find this just as well - it forces
a subclass to use its parents accessors. Finally,
you have to be somewhat accustomed to Functional
Programming to be used to staring at indenting
like that.
This is just a brief restatement of the second half of
Anonymous
Subroutine Objects at PerlDesignPatterns.com.
I treat the AUTOLOAD footer as a
Wrapper Module, and just use it into my namespace.