I agree with you that the documentation for many modules in general, and overload in particular leaves much to be desired. I've had several attempts at using overload in earnest for things that go beyond the simplistic--and asked here for further information--without much success with the more esoteric uses.

That's one of the reasons I'd like to see the current practice of writing a zillion small, useless tests (the code being tested, not the test itself!), replaced by a single, simple but complete application of the module, with the current individual tests achieved by assertions.

If all the tests complete successfully, the test application finished with a simple "All passed" message. It's all the user needs to know.

If an individual assertion fails, the test application terminates with the line number at which it failed plus full trace back. This tells the developer what failed and where.

And the test application acts as documentation for the user programmer.

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
"Too many [] have been sedated by an oppressive environment of political correctness and risk aversion."

In reply to Re: Overloading by Example by BrowserUk
in thread Overloading by Example by Ovid

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.