in reply to my Dog $spot;

Here's a Dog class which admits dynamic strong typing/value types, like I suggested in my replies to xdg and TimToady.

package Dog; use Tie::Constrained; use Scalar::Util qw/blessed/; # constraint object my $is_a_dog = Tie::Constrained->new( sub { blessed $_[0] and $_[0]->isa('Dog') }, ); sub new { bless {}, shift; } # not a constructor this time, ties the referent sub MODIFY_SCALAR_ATTRIBUTES { my $class = shift; my $ref = shift; tie $$ref, 'Tie::Constrained', $is_a_dog; # ignore attributes for this example, but # must have one to get called (); } sub bark { my $self = shift; print "Woof!\n"; } package Cat; sub new { bless {}, shift; } package main; my Dog $spot : Generic ; eval {$spot->bark} or warn q(Only tangible Dogs bark, ), $@; eval {$spot = Cat->new} or warn q(Can't be a Cat, ), $@; eval {$spot = Dog->new} or warn q(Major malfunction: ), $@; eval {$spot->bark} or warn q(Only tangible Dogs bark, ), $@;
Which prints,

Only tangible Dogs bark, Can't call method "bark" on an undefined value at dog.pl line 42.
Can't be a Cat, Constraint violation: at dog.pl line 44
Woof!

Declared attributes would likely be stored in %{tied($spot)}, which is persistent and independent of whatever is assigned the name. Matching declared attributes with Dog instance ones could be part of the constraint.

This is a very rough proof of concept. I haven't tried to make my $spot : Watchful = Dog->new; do the right thing. I haven't checked if it plays nice with fields.pm or Attribute::Handlers. I'd be surprised if it did at this stage.

After Compline,
Zaxo