package C; use strict; use base qw(model type); 1; __END__ $ perl -e 'use C' Base class package "model" is empty. (Perhaps you need to 'use' the module which defines that package first.) at C.pm line 5 BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at C.pm line 5. #### package A; use Spiffy -Base; use strict; field $_ for qw(id name); sub new { bless {}, $self } #### package B; use A -Base; use strict; field $_ for qw(addr phone city); sub new { bless {}, $self } #### package C; use A -Base; use strict; field $_ for qw(model type); sub new { bless {}, $self } #### #!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use B; use C; use Data::Dumper; $Data::Dumper::Indent = 1; my $foo = new C; $foo->id(123); $foo->name("thingy"); $foo->model("Z80"); my $bar = new B; $bar->id(456); $bar->city("Lhasa"); $bar->name("kouxuan"); print Dumper($foo); print Dumper($bar); __END__ $VAR1 = bless( { 'model' => 'Z80', 'name' => 'thingy', 'id' => 123 }, 'C' ); $VAR1 = bless( { 'city' => 'Lhasa', 'name' => 'kouxuan', 'id' => 456 }, 'B' );