This question is for those with a good understanding of object-oriented design in Perl. The question I have is, under the normal way of using my program, the hierarchy below is fine --- objects of Y have their own B() method but use the A() method from the base class: 
package X;
sub A { " base class implementation" }
sub B { " base class implementation" }
1;

package Y;
@ISA (X);

# Let's use A() from the base class
sub B { "local implementation" }

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However, based on a command line option, it is sometimes necessary for objects of Y to do something special instead of X::A(). I think I just arrived at the solution to my problem.

What I should do is this: 

sub Y::A {
   unless ($getopt{special_case}) {
      $self->SUPER::A();
      return;
   } 

   # do the stuff based on the command line arg if
   # the special case was chosen from the cmd line.
}

[download]

I was breaking out in a sweat here, thinking I was going to have to add subroutines to package Y dynamically at runtime based on cmdline args. Phew.

In reply to Best Method of Object-Oriented Behavior Addition? by princepawn

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