First off, this is only needlessly difficult in Perl. Python, Ruby and many others support this kind of smart attribute out of the box.

Well, since this isn't Python or Ruby, we can safely ignore them I think. As for it being "needlessly difficult", well, in my opinion it's just plain needless. When in Rome, do as the Romans. When coding Perl, do it with a method call.

I dispute the notion that doing so would lose programmer time, readability, or simplicity. I don't believe conciseness is a goal in and of itself, but if it is, Perl excels at it in other areas, so you've still got an overall win (by far.) And, as with most things in Perl, uniformity is simply up to the programmer. He must do things in a uniform manner because the language doesn't enforce it.

-sauoq
"My two cents aren't worth a dime.";