In short, an object is nothing more than a structure of data that has a "name". The compiler uses that name to find a set of subroutines, methods, that are assured of working with that structure. So, no, the methods aren't bootstrapped into memory once for each object, they are just subroutines that perl knows work well with a data structure.

Honestly, all the jargon makes it a lot more mysterious than it really is but you need the jargon to talk about the subtleties of it all.

Class

a data structure blueprint and a set of subroutines that know how to work on that structure.

Method

a subroutine that knows how to work on a particular data structure.

Object

a chunk of real data that follows a blueprint and has a field in it that knows what Class it belongs to.

Instantiate

to use the blueprint in a Class to create a new, filled-out data structure.

Call

look up a subroutine by it's method name in the Class that the object belongs to.

Inherit

borrow general purpose routines from a "parent" that work on parts of your structure.

HTH. There is a lot more to it but that is a sorta ok mapping to the world you are likely to have been working in. Others, help me out if I've "translated" that in some evil way that will only hurt him later, please.

--
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