Should bless be automatically redefined or explicitly as shown in the example above? It would almost always be imported, but making it explicit highlights the fact that bless is doing something unusual. Without the import, it could be called as InsideOut::Helper::bless( $self, $class ) of course.

I'd suggest that you call it "register" instead, as you proposed later. And force the user to export only the functions they need, explicitly. That way, it's easier to maintain: if you export fifteen functions, I need to check the codebase to see if any of those fifteen functions are still in use before I can remove the module from the codebase. If you only export what you actually use, then maintaining the code and removing unused modules becomes much easier. I'm lazy; I'd rather write down what I know when I know it (such as what functions I'm using from a given module), rather than waste time trying to reconstruct what I've forgotten.

Is redefining bless a bad idea? Should I just import a separate function like register instead to register the object after it's blessed using the built-in bless? E.g. register( bless $self, $class )

I don't see the need to redefine "bless"; just tell people to use "register" instead of "bless". You call the core "bless" function, so you should be able to use register exactly as you do "bless". In general, I find redefining builtin functions is always more confusing than not doing so. If I read "register", I know immediately that I don't know what's going on, and that I need to learn more. If I read "bless", I might be fooled into the wrong assumptions.

Just my $0.02
--
Ytrew

In reply to Re: Overriding bless for inside-out object safety by Anonymous Monk
in thread Overriding bless for inside-out object safety by xdg

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