Everyone provided good reasons for and against named arguments.

As for the how, I feel one thing is still missing: Params::Validate. This module has a nice way of defining very accurately what you need to get, and a little function that you simply feed your arguments to, and get back a proper data structure from.

It handles errors and all that.

When I work, given time, I use Params::Validate on classes that are subclassed heavily, or used by other people. I don't bother with it in the more "internal" classes while i'm working due to lack of time.

As the the actual style, I use non_capped_names because they're easiest to type. I've never had clashes with symbols, but for clarity I avoid reserved words (not that I haven't used any).

Ciao!