package Framework::myPackage ; sub _init { my $this = shift; # shift off the ref in $_[0] so we can access the params as @_ my %param = @_; #or my %param = $@_; # do i want something like that (i know thats not real perl) } package MyApp::myPackage ; sub new { ... $this->_init( @_ ); #or $this->_init( \@_ ); #? }