You just have no choice, if you don't have an instance
of the class. So if there is no object created, the
UNIVERSAL::can is the only way to test if that class provides
that method.
Cheers, Jeroen
"We are not alone"(FZ)
Update: Ahum... indeed. The perl OO is really confusing.
But, now I remember again, UNIVERSAL::can('Test','foo')
is actually the same as Test->can('foo'). Because in the last
case, the word Test gets unshifted into @_, and
the method 'can' is found in UNIVERSAL. So internally,
actually UNIVERSAL::can is called, with the args ('Test', @_),
which comes down to the same.
So this is actually a feature, not a bug {grin}
To clarify a bit more (mehopes):
package Test;
package main;
print "it works\n" if Test->UNIVERSAL::can('can');
print "it works\n" if Test->SUPER::can('can');
You see? The Package::can only gives the route to the
method (if not given, perl finds it from ISA). The ->
only tells which thing to unshift in @_.
Of course, the sub need a way to filter out whether
they are called with a Package or an object. So
the trick doesn't work with all methods.
It's explained also in the 'Inheritance' section of perltoot. | 