I was using Class::MakeMethods and I got a strange error about "Can't use a string as a HASH ref". Here's how to do it:

#!/usr/bin/perl

package BreakCmm;

use strict;
use warnings;

use Class::MakeMethods::Standard::Hash
    (
     'new'    => 'new',
     'scalar' => 'sleep',
    );

my $bc = BreakCmm->new;

$bc->sleep(5);

print "sleep = ", $bc->sleep, "\n";
sleep($bc->sleep);

__END__
Output:
Can't use string ("5") as a HASH ref while "strict refs" in use at /us
+r/local/share/perl/5.8.2/Class/MakeMethods/Standard/Hash.pm line 179.
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This error is caused because Class::MakeMethods made a class accessor method called sleep. When I tried to call the Perl builtin function sleep, this accessor method was called, with the time to sleep as the object to call the accessor on, which produced the strange error.

To avoid or fix the error, don't call your scalars by the same name as a builtin function that you intend to call. This could also be a problem with inheritance, so it's probably best to not call any of the object's attributes by the same name as a function which might be called, even if you don't intend doing so yourself. Here's the example program with the sleep attribute renamed to rest:

#!/usr/bin/perl

package BreakCmm;

use strict;
use warnings;

use Class::MakeMethods::Standard::Hash
    (
     'new'    => 'new',
     'scalar' => 'rest',
    );

my $bc = BreakCmm->new;

$bc->rest(5);

print "rest = ", $bc->rest, "\n";
sleep($bc->rest);

__END__
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