It seems that you can get around the scoping issue by not leaving the BEGIN block: 
BEGIN {
my @fields = qw/field1 field2/;
use fields @fields;
}
my $self = fields::new;
$self->{field1} = 'value1';

[download]
works just fine for me. It may fairly be argued that this is not much different from putting a require and import inside the BEGIN, though.

UPDATE: ikegami correctly points out that I must not have tested what I thought I tested, because this code doesn't work. Sorry. I think Bloodnok's solution (adapted to use fields) works, though.

In reply to Re^3: When is "use module" not the same as require+import? by JadeNB
in thread When is "use module" not the same as require+import? by AZed

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