$what->Does::This::mean( $anyway )

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

Dear monks, today i run into code which made me muse about diversity of this life.

$object->Some:Class::method(@args);

What does this mean and why would someone need to do such call?

Looks like this is the same as Some::Class::method($object, @args), but with respect to inheritance.

Another thing came to mind is $self->SUPER::new, which i always understood as "Call the new method of the superclass of $self's class". Is the SUPER some kind of magic (any relation to UNIVERSAL? e.g. each class in addition to isa and can has SUPER?)

Please point me to docs.

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Re: $what->Does::This::mean( $anyway ) by tobyink (Canon) on Mar 15, 2012 at 08:40 UTC
It's not quite the same as `Some::Class::method($object, @args)`. If `Some::Class::method` does not exist, `$object->Some::Class::method(@args)` will walk `Some::Class`'s superclasses (which may not be the same as `$object`'s superclasses) trying to find `method`. `SUPER` is not especially similar to `can` and `isa`, in that `SUPER` is not a method name, it's a pseudo-class. (See also NEXT, which is another pseudo-class, available since Perl 5.8.) Things which are similar to `can` and `isa` are `VERSION` and `DOES`. (See UNIVERSAL.) `perl -E'sub Monkey::do{say$_,for@_,do{($monkey=[caller(0)]->[3])=~s{::}{ }and$monkey}}"Monkey say"->Monkey::do'`	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: $what->Does::This::mean( $anyway ) by kcott (Archbishop) on Mar 15, 2012 at 07:10 UTC
`$what` could be an object or a class - see below. `SUPER` is the superclass of the current package not the superclass of the object's class - see below also. Please point me to docs. Specific to your questions: perlobj - Method Invocation Objects in general: perlobj OO Tutorials: perlboot; perltoot; perltooc; perlbot Perl in general: perl You may also be interested in Moose -- Ken	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: $what->Does::This::mean( $anyway ) by nemesdani (Friar) on Mar 15, 2012 at 06:43 UTC
SUPER looks in the current package's @ISA for the respective method, invoking the first one found.	[reply]
Re: $what->Does::This::mean( $anyway ) by trwww (Priest) on Mar 15, 2012 at 07:11 UTC
I'm pretty sure its functionally equivalent to `Some::Class::method($object, @args)` as you mentioned. I've used this syntax to do mixins when I need a cheap/easy way to share code between two otherwise unrelated objects.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: $what->Does::This::mean( $anyway ) by Khen1950fx (Canon) on Mar 15, 2012 at 08:18 UTC
See: Method Invocation.	[reply]