When writing objects I usually set an global variable $ERROR upon failure and return undef. $ERROR is then made available via an a method. This way I can have the script decide if it can live with that. An example code in the script could be the following, which is what I normally do.

my $mod = Module->new () or die Module->error ();

my $foo = $mod->method () or warn $mod->error ();

[download]

Remains the question: Is more arguments than expected an error? Well, I usually ignore unneccessary arguments, but this too depends on the context. Another way I'm using (especially in constructor methods) is passing hashes and then check for existing keys. So in general I'd say it depends on the context, but I wouldn't let an object kill the entire program.

Regards,
-octo

In reply to Re: What Are The Rules For Subs And Modules When Fed Wrong Input by flocto
in thread What Are The Rules For Subs And Modules When Fed Wrong Input by Cody Pendant

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.