AUTOLOAD not following @ISA as expected [solved]

chibiryuu has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I tried to make a simple module:

# Autoattr.pm
package Autoattr;
our $DEBUG;
sub new($) {
    $DEBUG and printf STDERR "%s::new(%s)\n",
        __PACKAGE__, join ', ', map "'$_'", @_;
    ref $_[0] ? bless {%{$_[0]}}, ref $_[0] : bless {}, $_[0];
}
sub DESTROY {
    $DEBUG and printf STDERR "%s::DESTROY(%s)\n",
        __PACKAGE__, join ', ', map "'$_'", @_;
    return;
}
sub AUTOLOAD {
    no strict qw(refs);
    our $AUTOLOAD;
    $DEBUG and printf STDERR "%s::AUTOLOAD=%s(%s)\n",
        __PACKAGE__, $AUTOLOAD, join ', ', map "'$_'", @_;
    if ($AUTOLOAD =~ /:get_([^:]*)$/) {
        my $attr = $1;
        *{$AUTOLOAD} = sub {$_[0]->{$attr}};
    }
    elsif ($AUTOLOAD =~ /:set_([^:]*)$/) {
        my $attr = $1;
        *{$AUTOLOAD} = sub {$_[0]->{$attr} = $_[1]; $_[0]};
    }
    else {
        (my $get = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/([^:]*)$/get_$1/;
        (my $set = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/([^:]*)$/set_$1/;
        *{$AUTOLOAD} = sub {goto \&{$#_ ? $set : $get}};
    }
    goto \&$AUTOLOAD;
}
1;
[download]

And use it thusly:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

package Foo;
use base qw(Autoattr);
sub get_foo {$_[0]->{foo} .= 'foo'}
sub set_bar {$_[0]->{bar} = 'bar' x $_[1]; $_[0]}

package Bar;
use base qw(Foo);

package main;
BEGIN {$Autoattr::DEBUG = 1}
$_ = Bar->new;
printf "\n>>> %s, %s, %s\n\n",
    $_->foo,
    $_->foo,
    $_->foo;
printf "\n>>> %s, %s, %s\n\n",
    do {$_->bar(3); $_->bar},
    do {$_->bar(2); $_->bar},
    do {$_->bar(1); $_->bar};
[download]

The idea was to somewhat emulate def foo and def bar= from Ruby.

If I use $_ = Foo->new, everything works as expected.

Autoattr::new('Foo')                                                  
+          
Autoattr::AUTOLOAD=Foo::foo('Foo=HASH(0x225140)')                     
+          
                                                                      
+          
>>> foo, foofoo, foofoofoo                                            
+          
                                                                      
+          
Autoattr::AUTOLOAD=Foo::bar('Foo=HASH(0x225140)', '3')                
+          
Autoattr::AUTOLOAD=Foo::get_bar('Foo=HASH(0x225140)')                 
+          

>>> barbarbar, barbar, bar                                            
+          
                                                                      
+          
Autoattr::DESTROY('Foo=HASH(0x225140)')
[download]

However, with $_ = Bar->new as above, it no longer works.

Autoattr::new('Bar')                                                  
+          
Autoattr::AUTOLOAD=Bar::foo('Bar=HASH(0x225164)')                     
+          
Autoattr::AUTOLOAD=Bar::get_foo('Bar=HASH(0x225164)')                 
+          
Use of uninitialized value in printf at C:\dev\perl\test.pl line 32.  
+          
Use of uninitialized value in printf at C:\dev\perl\test.pl line 32.  
+          
Use of uninitialized value in printf at C:\dev\perl\test.pl line 32.  
+          
                                                                      
+          
>>> , ,                                                               
+          
                                                                      
+          
Autoattr::AUTOLOAD=Bar::bar('Bar=HASH(0x225164)', '3')                
+          
Autoattr::AUTOLOAD=Bar::set_bar('Bar=HASH(0x225164)', '3')            
+          
Autoattr::AUTOLOAD=Bar::get_bar('Bar=HASH(0x225164)')                 
+          

>>> 3, 2, 1                                                           
+          
                                                                      
+          
Autoattr::DESTROY('Bar=HASH(0x225164)')
[download]

To me, it seems like bouncing back out of &AUTOLOAD doesn't return to into traversing @ISA, which is sad. :-(

Am I misinterpreting something, and is there a better way of doing this? I don't want to have to (pre)declare all of the attributes that I'll be using.

Update:

Now I understand a little better.

If I call $_->Bar::foo, that does not ever get translated into $_->Foo::foo, regardless of @ISA.

Now that I understand that only ->foo has magic, and not ->Bar::foo, it makes fixing the problem easy.

Update^2:

Silly me. UNIVERSAL::can returns exactly what I wanted: a "magical" code ref that follows inheritance when you call it, so I changed my code to use it.

package Autoattr;
our $DEBUG;
sub new($) {
    $DEBUG and printf STDERR "%s::new(%s)\n",
        __PACKAGE__, join ', ', map "'$_'", @_;
    ref $_[0] ? bless {%{$_[0]}}, ref $_[0] : bless {}, $_[0];
}
sub DESTROY {
    $DEBUG and printf STDERR "%s::DESTROY(%s)\n",
        __PACKAGE__, join ', ', map "'$_'", @_;
    return;
}
sub AUTOLOAD {
    no strict qw(refs);
    $DEBUG and printf STDERR "%s::AUTOLOAD=%s(%s)\n",
        __PACKAGE__, our $AUTOLOAD, join ', ', map "'$_'", @_;
    *{$AUTOLOAD} =                                    # into the symbo
+l table
        $AUTOLOAD =~ /(?<![^:])get_([^:]*)$/s ? do {  # define a gette
+r
            my $attr = $1;
            sub($) {ref $_[0] ? $_[0]->{$attr} : ${"$_[0]::$attr"}};
        } :
        $AUTOLOAD =~ /(?<![^:])set_([^:]*)$/s ? do {  # define a sette
+r
            my $attr = $1;
            sub($$) {
                ref $_[0] ? $_[0]->{$attr} : ${"$_[0]::$attr"} = $_[1]
+;
                $_[0];
            };
        } : do {                                      # get/set depend
+ing on @_
            (my $get = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/([^:]*)$/get_$1/;
            (my $set = $AUTOLOAD) =~ s/([^:]*)$/set_$1/;
            sub($;$) {$#_ ? $_[0]->$set(@_[1 .. $#_]) : $_[0]->$get};
        }
    ;
    $AUTOLOAD =~ /([^:]*)$/; goto $_[0]->can($1);     # go to the new 
+symbol
}
[download]

Thanks!

Comment on AUTOLOAD not following @ISA as expected [solved] Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: AUTOLOAD not following @ISA as expected by diotalevi (Canon) on Aug 02, 2005 at 22:11 UTC
You'll want to forget you ever read anything about perl's prototyping syntax. It isn't meant to be used and it will introduce bugs that only exist when you use that system. The only safe prototype is (&) and that's rather specialized. Until you can fully explain why prototypes are broken as implemented, you shouldn't use them. I can and I don't use them. That's what Params::Validate is for.	[reply]
Re^2: AUTOLOAD not following @ISA as expected by chibiryuu (Beadle) on Aug 02, 2005 at 23:01 UTC
I've been getting into a habit of writing valid prototypes for my functions, for documentation more than anything. They're pointless here, so I took them out... Thanks for the pointer, though, I'll look into using Params::Validate in the future.	[reply]
Re^3: AUTOLOAD not following @ISA as expected by diotalevi (Canon) on Aug 03, 2005 at 03:27 UTC
That's just the thing, it adds bugs that wouldn't otherwise exist. If you need documentation, do it some other way.	[reply]
Re: AUTOLOAD not following @ISA as expected by dave_the_m (Monsignor) on Aug 02, 2005 at 21:11 UTC
I haven't got the time or patience to read and try to understand all your code, but I get the impression that you're expecting `goto &sub` to do inheritance, which it doesn't. Is that what you mean by 'bouncing back of AUTOLOAD'? Dave.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: AUTOLOAD not following @ISA as expected by chibiryuu (Beadle) on Aug 02, 2005 at 21:16 UTC
Yes, that is what I mean.	[reply]
Re^3: AUTOLOAD not following @ISA as expected by dave_the_m (Monsignor) on Aug 02, 2005 at 22:17 UTC
Yes, that is what I mean In that case I think you want to replace `sub {goto \&{$#_ ? $set : $get}};` with `sub { my $self = shift; @_ ? $self->$set(@_) : $self->$get(@_) };` [download] or `sub { goto &{$_[0]->can($#_ ? $set : $get)} };` [download] Dave.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: AUTOLOAD not following @ISA as expected by jhourcle (Prior) on Aug 02, 2005 at 21:47 UTC
AUTOLOAD doesn't play nicely with inheritance -- it takes control of everything. (including DESTROY, which can make for some interesting problems). You may want to take a look at NEXT	[reply]
Re: AUTOLOAD not following @ISA as expected by borisz (Canon) on Aug 02, 2005 at 21:50 UTC
I'm to lazy to follow the details, but for `Bar`, `*{$AUTOLOAD} = sub($;$) {goto \&{ $#_ ? $set : $get}};` can't work, since `Bar::set_bar` does not exists in opposide to Foo, where `Foo::set_bar` does the work. Same for `Foo::get_foo`. Boris	[reply] [d/l] [select]