This is an ongoing theme of mine: see multiple method calls against the same object (f.ex GUI programming) and RFC: Class::Proxy::MethodChain.

I think I have now found an elegant solution I can settle for.

An example similar to the one in multiple method calls against the same object (f.ex GUI programming) would be

my $window = call_on_obj(
    Gtk2::Window->new( "toplevel" ),
    [ signal_connect   => ( delete_event => sub { Gtk2->main_quit } ) 
+],
    [ set_title        => "Test" ],
    [ set_border_width => 15 ],
    [ add              => call_on_obj(
        Gtk2::Button->new( "Quit" ),
        [ signal_connect => ( clicked => sub { Gtk2->main_quit } ) ],
    ) ],
    [ 'show_all' ],
);

[download]

which is equivalent to

my $window = Gtk2::Window->new( "toplevel" );
$window->signal_connect( delete_event => sub { Gtk2->main_quit } );
$window->set_title( "Test" );
$window->set_border_width( 15 );
$window->add( do {
    my $button = Gtk2::Button->new( "Quit" );
    $button->signal_connect( clicked => sub { Gtk2->main_quit } );
    $button;
} );
$window->show_all();

[download]

Update: changed example to actual working Gtk2 code.

Update: fixed re-throw code bug spotted by simonm.

use List::Util;

sub call_on_obj {
    my( $method, @param );
    no warnings 'once';
    List::Util::reduce {
        ( $method, @param ) = @$b;
        eval { $a->$method( @param ) };
        if( $@ ) { { local $@; require Carp; } Carp::croak( $@ ) }
        $a;
    } @_;
}

[download]

In reply to multiple method calls against the same object, revisited by Aristotle

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.