my $conf = Ex::mod->conf(user=>'Alice');
my $a = $conf->new();

##</code><code>##

sub new {
    my( $conf, %opts ) = @_;
    my $class = ref($conf) || $conf;	# subclass boilerplate.
    $conf = {}
         if  ! ref $conf;
    my $self = {
        user => $opts{user} // $conf->{user} // '',
    };
    return bless $self, $class;
}

##</code><code>##

sub send_request {
    my( $self, ... ) = @_;
    croak "Can't send_request via incomplete object\n"
        if  ! $self->{socket};