http://qs321.pair.com?node_id=690437

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

Hello Monks,

I would like to use Attribute::Default from CPAN in order to define default arguments for subs in a easily readable way. Here is a simple example which works:

use strict; use warnings; use base 'Attribute::Default'; sub f : Default(undef,"xyz") { print("@_\nEND\n"); } f('abc'); # 2nd argument defaults to xyz
This prints abc xyz, followed by a line saying END. Things stop to work, however, when I use Attribute::Default in a package which itself uses the Exporter; or maybe I just may some silly mistake. Here is the first thing I tried:
# This is file Co.pm package Co; use strict; use warnings; use base qw(Exporter Attribute::Default); our @EXPORT_OK=qw(f); sub f : Default(undef,"xyz") { print("@_\nEND\n"); } 1;
This will be called in the following way:
# This is file cotest.pl use warnings; use strict; use Co qw(f); f('abc');
Executing this will output just abc followed by END; i.e. the default argument is not used.

It gets even more bizarre when I handle @ISA by myself instead of letting use base doint it:

# This is file Co1.pm package Co1; use strict; use warnings; use Exporter; use Attribute::Default; our @ISA=qw(Exporter Attribute::Default); our @EXPORT_OK=qw(f); sub f : Default(undef,"xyz") { print("@_\nEND\n"); } 1;
I call this as usual,
# This is file cotest1.pl use warnings; use strict; use Co qw(f); f('abc');
but now I get the error message:
Invalid CODE attribute: Default(undef,"xyz") at Co1.pm
Well, I guess there is a reason why the perldoc to Attribute::Default says that you need do use base '...' to access it. Anyway, as a last resort I tried to combine the two approaches:
# This is Co2.pm package Co2; use strict; use warnings; use Exporter; our @ISA=qw(Exporter); use base qw(Attribute::Default); our @EXPORT_OK=qw(f); sub f : Default(undef,"xyz") { print("@_\nEND\n"); } 1;
The program for calling it is, not surprisingly:
use warnings; use strict; use Co2 qw(f); f('abc');
Now I get the error message:
Can't locate object method "_ATTR_CODE_Default" via package "Co2"
What is going wrong here?

-- 
Ronald Fischer <ynnor@mm.st>