You can also predeclare the subs you want to AUTOLOAD.

If I know the names of the subroutines I AUTOLOAD then I don't have a problem. The problem is when you do not know the methods during compilation.

If your AUTOLOAD has some logic to determine whether it should generate a subroutine, you can factor that logic into a subroutine shared between AUTOLOAD and an overridden can.

Indeed, that is the problem I'm trying to solve and the solution that I use.

You don't even have to go through gyrations in can to return a reference. Perl 5 autovivifies subroutines if you take references to them in the appropriate way. Of course, you can also factor out the code which installs the reference and share it between can and AUTOLOAD.

I don't quite understand this paragraph. What subroutines will be autovivified? Maybe this is just wording, but I'm not installing any references. I get the impression that you think I am trying to lazily load subroutines to e.g. save memory. That is not the problem I try to solve. The major problem is how to provide fallback methods dynamically during runtime that shows up in can. Maybe that should have been clearer. I have updated the root node to make this clearer, I hope.

lodin