use Foo;

sub new(*)
{
 die "wuh?";
}

$x = new Foo();
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package Foo;

sub new
{
   return bless { a => 1 }, shift;
}

sub new2
{
   return bless { a => 1 }, shift;
}
1;
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So before you berate me more on what a constructor is, i suggest you reread my posts. Thank you.

I've had to do exactly that with Class::MethodMaker. I needed to initialize an object with a LOT of data (and a LOT of method calls) and initializing the object through repeated method calls was S-L-O-W. So, I subverted the regular constructor with my own:

package Datawarehouse::Employee;
use Class::MethodMaker
    new_with_init => 'new'; 
    
sub init {
    # ...Load up a whole lot of data

    # Bless my own object into the class
    Datawarehouse::Employee->new_new(\%args);
}

sub new_new {
    # This constructor is a HELL of alot faster than creating an
    # object by calling accessor methods one by one.
    my $class = shift;
    my $args = shift;
    my $obj = bless $args, $class; # Loading the whole hash as one
}
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If you do this while using the key_attrib parameter in Class::MethodMaker you'll need to call the key_attrib method explicitly so that your hand-made object is tracked like the regular one's are. Looking at the Class::MethodMaker source code is a great way of figuring out exactly what's going on with the autogenerated methods.

Gary Blackburn
Trained Killer

Just combing through the POD, I ran across this.

new_hash_init Creates a basic constructor which accepts a hash of slot-name/value pairs with which to initialize the object. The slot-names are interpreted as the names of methods that can be called on the object after it is created and the values are the arguments to be passed to those methods. Takes a single string or a reference to an array of strings as its argument. For each string creates a method of the form listed below. Note that this method can be called on an existing objec, which allows it to be combined with new_with_init (see above) to provide some default values. (Basically, declare a new_with_init method, say 'new' and a new_hash_init method, for example, 'hash_init' and then in the init method, you can call modify or add to the %args hash and then call hash_init.)

    sub <string> {
      my ($class, %args) = @_;
      my $self = {};
      bless $self, $class;
      foreach (keys %args) {
        $self->$_($args{$_});
      }
      $self;
    }
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Sounds like new_with_init except with my name/value pairs request taken into account. Excellent tip. Rock on!