You can compile the code for methods in a package other than the one used to
look up methods (the one matching the class name), then you can put
non-method utilities in that non-class package and use them directly w/o
inheritance and without poluting your "method name" namespace.
package My::Class::SubClass;
require My::Class::Base;
@ISA= qw( My::Class::Base );
package My::Class::SubClass::_code;
# Import common non-methods:
My::Class::Base::_code->import( qw( _utilSub _timestamp ) );
# Export below methods to My::Class::SubClass:
for( grep !/^_/, keys %{ __PACKAGE__ . "::" } ) {
*{"My::Class::SubClass::".$_}= \&$_
if defined &$_;
}
use strict;
sub new {
my $us= shift @_;
...
$us->someBaseMethod( @works );
_utilSub( _timestamp() );
...
}
Then you don't have to try to guess whether the first argument is an object or
not. Perhaps more importantly, you don't have to worry about your users being
confused when they access a utility function that has nothing to do with the
object via a simple $obj->_timestamp(), since that would tell them that
there is no _timestamp() method.
If you don't like the underscore, then you can list which methods to export
rather than just exporting all subroutines that don't have a leading
underscore.
Just because Perl 5 doesn't include a feature for distinguishing methods from
non-methods, doesn't mean you have to throw all of those different
items into the same namespace.
Note that this breaks SUPER:: and some naive OO doohickeys that try to rely on
caller (which doesn't currently provide a proper class name for such uses).
If you want your users to be able to access the util sub as a method, then you
can use this same technique (of compiling methods into a package other than
the one having the name of the class) to provide both a method and non-method
version without having to try to guess whether the first argument is an object:
package My::Class::Base;
use vars qw( $VERSION );
$VERSION= 1.001_002;
package My::Class::Base::_code;
use vars qw( @EXPORT_OK );
BEGIN {
require Exporter;
*import= \&Exporter::import;
@EXPORT_OK= qw( _utilSub _timestamp );
}
use strict;
sub _timestamp {
# non-method code
}
# Method version:
*My::Class::Base::_timestamp= sub {
shift @_;
return _timestamp();
}
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