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PERLBOT(1)	Perl Programmers Reference Guide       PERLBOT(1)

NAME
     perlbot - Bag'o Object Tricks (the BOT)

DESCRIPTION
     The following collection of tricks and hints is intended to
     whet curious appetites about such things as the use of
     instance variables and the mechanics of object and class
     relationships.  The reader is encouraged to consult relevant
     textbooks for discussion of Object Oriented definitions and
     methodology.  This is not intended as a tutorial for
     object-oriented programming or as a comprehensive guide to
     Perl's object oriented features, nor should it be construed
     as a style guide.	If you're looking for tutorials, be sure
     to read perlboot, perltoot, and perltooc.

     The Perl motto still holds:  There's more than one way to do
     it.

OO SCALING TIPS
     1	  Do not attempt to verify the type of $self.  That'll
	  break if the class is inherited, when the type of $self
	  is valid but its package isn't what you expect.  See
	  rule 5.

     2	  If an object-oriented (OO) or indirect-object (IO) syn-
	  tax was used, then the object is probably the correct
	  type and there's no need to become paranoid about it.
	  Perl isn't a paranoid language anyway.  If people sub-
	  vert the OO or IO syntax then they probably know what
	  they're doing and you should let them do it.	See rule
	  1.

     3	  Use the two-argument form of bless().	 Let a subclass
	  use your constructor. See "INHERITING A CONSTRUCTOR".

     4	  The subclass is allowed to know things about its
	  immediate superclass, the superclass is allowed to know
	  nothing about a subclass.

     5	  Don't be trigger happy with inheritance.  A "using",
	  "containing", or "delegation" relationship (some sort
	  of aggregation, at least) is often more appropriate.
	  See "OBJECT RELATIONSHIPS", "USING RELATIONSHIP WITH
	  SDBM", and "DELEGATION".

     6	  The object is the namespace.	Make package globals
	  accessible via the object.  This will remove the guess
	  work about the symbol's home package. See "CLASS CON-
	  TEXT AND THE OBJECT".

     7	  IO syntax is certainly less noisy, but it is also prone
	  to ambiguities that can cause difficult-to-find bugs.

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	  Allow people to use the sure-thing OO syntax, even if
	  you don't like it.

     8	  Do not use function-call syntax on a method.	You're
	  going to be bitten someday.  Someone might move that
	  method into a superclass and your code will be broken.
	  On top of that you're feeding the paranoia in rule 2.

     9	  Don't assume you know the home package of a method.
	  You're making it difficult for someone to override that
	  method.  See "THINKING OF CODE REUSE".

INSTANCE VARIABLES
     An anonymous array or anonymous hash can be used to hold
     instance variables.  Named parameters are also demonstrated.

	     package Foo;

	     sub new {
		     my $type = shift;
		     my %params = @_;
		     my $self = {};
		     $self->{'High'} = $params{'High'};
		     $self->{'Low'}  = $params{'Low'};
		     bless $self, $type;
	     }

	     package Bar;

	     sub new {
		     my $type = shift;
		     my %params = @_;
		     my $self = [];
		     $self->[0] = $params{'Left'};
		     $self->[1] = $params{'Right'};
		     bless $self, $type;
	     }

	     package main;

	     $a = Foo->new( 'High' => 42, 'Low' => 11 );
	     print "High=$a->{'High'}\n";
	     print "Low=$a->{'Low'}\n";

	     $b = Bar->new( 'Left' => 78, 'Right' => 40 );
	     print "Left=$b->[0]\n";
	     print "Right=$b->[1]\n";

SCALAR INSTANCE VARIABLES
     An anonymous scalar can be used when only one instance vari-
     able is needed.

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	     package Foo;

	     sub new {
		     my $type = shift;
		     my $self;
		     $self = shift;
		     bless \$self, $type;
	     }

	     package main;

	     $a = Foo->new( 42 );
	     print "a=$$a\n";

INSTANCE VARIABLE INHERITANCE
     This example demonstrates how one might inherit instance
     variables from a superclass for inclusion in the new class.
     This requires calling the superclass's constructor and
     adding one's own instance variables to the new object.

	     package Bar;

	     sub new {
		     my $type = shift;
		     my $self = {};
		     $self->{'buz'} = 42;
		     bless $self, $type;
	     }

	     package Foo;
	     @ISA = qw( Bar );

	     sub new {
		     my $type = shift;
		     my $self = Bar->new;
		     $self->{'biz'} = 11;
		     bless $self, $type;
	     }

	     package main;

	     $a = Foo->new;
	     print "buz = ", $a->{'buz'}, "\n";
	     print "biz = ", $a->{'biz'}, "\n";

OBJECT RELATIONSHIPS
     The following demonstrates how one might implement "contain-
     ing" and "using" relationships between objects.

	     package Bar;

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	     sub new {
		     my $type = shift;
		     my $self = {};
		     $self->{'buz'} = 42;
		     bless $self, $type;
	     }

	     package Foo;

	     sub new {
		     my $type = shift;
		     my $self = {};
		     $self->{'Bar'} = Bar->new;
		     $self->{'biz'} = 11;
		     bless $self, $type;
	     }

	     package main;

	     $a = Foo->new;
	     print "buz = ", $a->{'Bar'}->{'buz'}, "\n";
	     print "biz = ", $a->{'biz'}, "\n";

OVERRIDING SUPERCLASS METHODS
     The following example demonstrates how to override a super-
     class method and then call the overridden method.	The SUPER
     pseudo-class allows the programmer to call an overridden
     superclass method without actually knowing where that method
     is defined.

	     package Buz;
	     sub goo { print "here's the goo\n" }

	     package Bar; @ISA = qw( Buz );
	     sub google { print "google here\n" }

	     package Baz;
	     sub mumble { print "mumbling\n" }

	     package Foo;
	     @ISA = qw( Bar Baz );

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	     sub new {
		     my $type = shift;
		     bless [], $type;
	     }
	     sub grr { print "grumble\n" }
	     sub goo {
		     my $self = shift;
		     $self->SUPER::goo();
	     }
	     sub mumble {
		     my $self = shift;
		     $self->SUPER::mumble();
	     }
	     sub google {
		     my $self = shift;
		     $self->SUPER::google();
	     }

	     package main;

	     $foo = Foo->new;
	     $foo->mumble;
	     $foo->grr;
	     $foo->goo;
	     $foo->google;

     Note that "SUPER" refers to the superclasses of the current
     package ("Foo"), not to the superclasses of $self.

USING RELATIONSHIP WITH SDBM
     This example demonstrates an interface for the SDBM class.
     This creates a "using" relationship between the SDBM class
     and the new class Mydbm.

	     package Mydbm;

	     require SDBM_File;
	     require Tie::Hash;
	     @ISA = qw( Tie::Hash );

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	     sub TIEHASH {
		 my $type = shift;
		 my $ref  = SDBM_File->new(@_);
		 bless {'dbm' => $ref}, $type;
	     }
	     sub FETCH {
		 my $self = shift;
		 my $ref  = $self->{'dbm'};
		 $ref->FETCH(@_);
	     }
	     sub STORE {
		 my $self = shift;
		 if (defined $_[0]){
		     my $ref = $self->{'dbm'};
		     $ref->STORE(@_);
		 } else {
		     die "Cannot STORE an undefined key in Mydbm\n";
		 }
	     }

	     package main;
	     use Fcntl qw( O_RDWR O_CREAT );

	     tie %foo, "Mydbm", "Sdbm", O_RDWR|O_CREAT, 0640;
	     $foo{'bar'} = 123;
	     print "foo-bar = $foo{'bar'}\n";

	     tie %bar, "Mydbm", "Sdbm2", O_RDWR|O_CREAT, 0640;
	     $bar{'Cathy'} = 456;
	     print "bar-Cathy = $bar{'Cathy'}\n";

THINKING OF CODE REUSE
     One strength of Object-Oriented languages is the ease with
     which old code can use new code.  The following examples
     will demonstrate first how one can hinder code reuse and
     then how one can promote code reuse.

     This first example illustrates a class which uses a fully-
     qualified method call to access the "private" method BAZ().
     The second example will show that it is impossible to over-
     ride the BAZ() method.

	     package FOO;

	     sub new {
		     my $type = shift;
		     bless {}, $type;
	     }
	     sub bar {
		     my $self = shift;
		     $self->FOO::private::BAZ;
	     }

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	     package FOO::private;

	     sub BAZ {
		     print "in BAZ\n";
	     }

	     package main;

	     $a = FOO->new;
	     $a->bar;

     Now we try to override the BAZ() method.  We would like
     FOO::bar() to call GOOP::BAZ(), but this cannot happen
     because FOO::bar() explicitly calls FOO::private::BAZ().

	     package FOO;

	     sub new {
		     my $type = shift;
		     bless {}, $type;
	     }
	     sub bar {
		     my $self = shift;
		     $self->FOO::private::BAZ;
	     }

	     package FOO::private;

	     sub BAZ {
		     print "in BAZ\n";
	     }

	     package GOOP;
	     @ISA = qw( FOO );
	     sub new {
		     my $type = shift;
		     bless {}, $type;
	     }

	     sub BAZ {
		     print "in GOOP::BAZ\n";
	     }

	     package main;

	     $a = GOOP->new;
	     $a->bar;

     To create reusable code we must modify class FOO, flattening
     class FOO::private.  The next example shows a reusable class
     FOO which allows the method GOOP::BAZ() to be used in place
     of FOO::BAZ().

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	     package FOO;

	     sub new {
		     my $type = shift;
		     bless {}, $type;
	     }
	     sub bar {
		     my $self = shift;
		     $self->BAZ;
	     }

	     sub BAZ {
		     print "in BAZ\n";
	     }

	     package GOOP;
	     @ISA = qw( FOO );

	     sub new {
		     my $type = shift;
		     bless {}, $type;
	     }
	     sub BAZ {
		     print "in GOOP::BAZ\n";
	     }

	     package main;

	     $a = GOOP->new;
	     $a->bar;

CLASS CONTEXT AND THE OBJECT
     Use the object to solve package and class context problems.
     Everything a method needs should be available via the object
     or should be passed as a parameter to the method.

     A class will sometimes have static or global data to be used
     by the methods.  A subclass may want to override that data
     and replace it with new data.  When this happens the super-
     class may not know how to find the new copy of the data.

     This problem can be solved by using the object to define the
     context of the method.  Let the method look in the object
     for a reference to the data.  The alternative is to force
     the method to go hunting for the data ("Is it in my class,
     or in a subclass?	Which subclass?"), and this can be incon-
     venient and will lead to hackery.	It is better just to let
     the object tell the method where that data is located.

	     package Bar;

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	     %fizzle = ( 'Password' => 'XYZZY' );

	     sub new {
		     my $type = shift;
		     my $self = {};
		     $self->{'fizzle'} = \%fizzle;
		     bless $self, $type;
	     }

	     sub enter {
		     my $self = shift;

		     # Don't try to guess if we should use %Bar::fizzle
		     # or %Foo::fizzle.	 The object already knows which
		     # we should use, so just ask it.
		     #
		     my $fizzle = $self->{'fizzle'};

		     print "The word is ", $fizzle->{'Password'}, "\n";
	     }

	     package Foo;
	     @ISA = qw( Bar );

	     %fizzle = ( 'Password' => 'Rumple' );

	     sub new {
		     my $type = shift;
		     my $self = Bar->new;
		     $self->{'fizzle'} = \%fizzle;
		     bless $self, $type;
	     }

	     package main;

	     $a = Bar->new;
	     $b = Foo->new;
	     $a->enter;
	     $b->enter;

INHERITING A CONSTRUCTOR
     An inheritable constructor should use the second form of
     bless() which allows blessing directly into a specified
     class.  Notice in this example that the object will be a BAR
     not a FOO, even though the constructor is in class FOO.

	     package FOO;

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	     sub new {
		     my $type = shift;
		     my $self = {};
		     bless $self, $type;
	     }

	     sub baz {
		     print "in FOO::baz()\n";
	     }

	     package BAR;
	     @ISA = qw(FOO);

	     sub baz {
		     print "in BAR::baz()\n";
	     }

	     package main;

	     $a = BAR->new;
	     $a->baz;

DELEGATION
     Some classes, such as SDBM_File, cannot be effectively sub-
     classed because they create foreign objects.  Such a class
     can be extended with some sort of aggregation technique such
     as the "using" relationship mentioned earlier or by delega-
     tion.

     The following example demonstrates delegation using an AUTO-
     LOAD() function to perform message-forwarding.  This will
     allow the Mydbm object to behave exactly like an SDBM_File
     object.  The Mydbm class could now extend the behavior by
     adding custom FETCH() and STORE() methods, if this is
     desired.

	     package Mydbm;

	     require SDBM_File;
	     require Tie::Hash;
	     @ISA = qw(Tie::Hash);

	     sub TIEHASH {
		     my $type = shift;
		     my $ref = SDBM_File->new(@_);
		     bless {'delegate' => $ref};
	     }

	     sub AUTOLOAD {
		     my $self = shift;

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		     # The Perl interpreter places the name of the
		     # message in a variable called $AUTOLOAD.

		     # DESTROY messages should never be propagated.
		     return if $AUTOLOAD =~ /::DESTROY$/;

		     # Remove the package name.
		     $AUTOLOAD =~ s/^Mydbm:://;

		     # Pass the message to the delegate.
		     $self->{'delegate'}->$AUTOLOAD(@_);
	     }

	     package main;
	     use Fcntl qw( O_RDWR O_CREAT );

	     tie %foo, "Mydbm", "adbm", O_RDWR|O_CREAT, 0640;
	     $foo{'bar'} = 123;
	     print "foo-bar = $foo{'bar'}\n";

SEE ALSO
     perlboot, perltoot, perltooc.

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