sub new {
   my ($class, %options) = @_;

   my $user   = delete $options{user};
   my $passwd = delete $options{passwd};
   ...

   my $self = $class->SUPER::new(%options);
   $self->{user}   = $user;
   $self->{passwd} = $passwd;
   ...
   return $self;
}
[download]

Nowhere in any of the examples or tutorials does it show the possibility of passing userid and password to either LWP->new or LWP::UserAgent->new. The former seems to accept no parameters, and the latter is defined as taking these options:

KEY                     DEFAULT
   -----------             --------------------
   agent                   "libwww-perl/#.##"
   from                    undef
   conn_cache              undef
   cookie_jar              undef
   default_headers         HTTP::Headers->new
   max_size                undef
   max_redirect            7
   parse_head              1
   protocols_allowed       undef
   protocols_forbidden     undef
   requests_redirectable   ['GET', 'HEAD']
   timeout                 180
[download]

So, you've overridden & extended new() in order to pass two parameters: userid & password.

And overridden get_basic_credentials() in order to associate those with a third parameter: realm, and maybe a fourth: url (which you pass in to get(), in order to do digest authentication.

Ain't OOP just a wonderful!

You know, it ain't like LWP was designed and implemented by some rank newbie.

---

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.

"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".

In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

"Too many [] have been sedated by an oppressive environment of political correctness and risk aversion."

Nowhere in any of the examples or tutorials does it show the possibility of passing userid and password to either LWP->new or LWP::UserAgent->new.

Of course not. LWP->new doesn't exists and LWP::UserAgent->new does not have such a parameter. Why would the docs for one class document the parameters a method in another class could have?

You know, it ain't like LWP was designed and implemented by some rank newbie.

What I did is no different than how WWW::Mechanize adds a stack_depth argument to the constructor and overrides method content, among others.

Feature addition through extension is a common practice, but not one I like. What if you had to extend two features?

Update: Added "no different" paragraph.