It is pretty much no longer recommended anywhere because it (ab)uses context and returns array/hash ref in scalar context and an array/hash in list context. While this is actually a fairly common idiom in Perl which I myself am long guilty of (ab)using (heck I even wrote the original auto-def code), it really is evil and should be stopped. The problem is that Perl context sensitivity can easily be the source of annoying and difficult to spot bugs, like for instance ... 

# normal usage, works just fine ...
my @foo = $obj->foo; 
my $foo = $obj->foo; 

# but ...
$other_obj->bar( foos => $obj->foo ); # whoops!

# should actually be the more ugly ...
$other_obj->bar( foos => scalar $obj->foo );

[download]
While it might seem trivial, it really can be difficult to track down sometimes, especially when this is your primary accessor. But of course, it is nice to not have to manually de-ref all the time (Perl 5.13++) which is pretty much why the Hash trait and Array trait both have an 'elements' to delegate to that returns the derefed item in a non-context sensitive way.

-stvn

In reply to Re^3: Moose Design Thoughts (Traits) by stvn
in thread Moose Design Thoughts (Traits) by Cagao

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.