NAME

reform - Third millenium syntax for Perl 5 OOP

SYNOPSIS

    use reform;

    package Class < Base;

    fields foo,
           bar,
           baz;

    sub initialize($foo, $bar, $baz)
    {
        base->initialize($foo);
        self->foo = $foo;
        self->bar = $bar;
        self->baz = $baz;
    }

    sub method
    {
        print "Hi there";
        class->static_method();
    }

    sub get_foo
    {
        print "Getting self->foo!";
        return self->{foo};
    }

    sub set_foo($value)
    {
        print "Setting self->foo!";
        self->{foo} = $value;
    }

DESCRIPTION

This module provides a less awkward syntax for Perl 5 OOP. reform must be the first thing to be used in your code, even above your package declaration.

Shorthand inheritance

Rather than using the cumbersome use base 'Parent' you may write:

    package Child < Parent;

Shorthand parameters

It is no longer necessary to fish method parameters out of @_:

    sub method($foo, $bar)
    {
        print "First param: $foo";
        print "Second param: $bar";
    }

Implicit self, class and base

References to the instance, the class (package) and the base class are implicitely provided as self, class and base:

    sub method
    {
        self->instance_method();
        class->static_method();
        base->super_class_method();
    }

Pretty field accessors

You may omit the curly brackets in self->{foo} if you declare your field names using fields:

    fields foo, bar;

    sub method {
        self->foo = "some value";
        print self->foo;
    }

You may intercept read and write access to instance fields by overwriting getter and setter methods:

    fields foo;

    sub get_foo
    {
        print "Getting foo!";
        return self->{foo};
    }

    sub set_foo($value)
    {
        print "Setting foo!";
        self->{foo} = $value;
    }

Note that you must wrap the field names in curly brackets to access the actual self->{foo} inside of getter and setter methods.

Clean constructors

All reformed packages inherit a basic constructor new from the Class package. When you need custom contructors, don't overwrite new - overwrite initialize:

    use reform;
    package Amy;

    fields foo,
           bar;

    sub initialize($foo)
    {
        self->foo = $foo;
    }

You may call the constructor of a base class by calling base->initialize().

Dynamically adding field accessors

When you need to dynamically add field accessors, use self->add_field($field):

    sub method
    {
        self->add_field('boo');
        self->boo = 55;
    }

Note that all objects constructed after a use of add_field will also bear the new accessors.

You may request a list of all fields currently assigned to a class by calling self->fields or class->fields;

INSTALLING

This package should have come with three files: reform.pm, reform/implicit.pm and reform/Property.pm.

The only somewhat exotic CPAN package you will need to run this is Filter::Simple <http://search.cpan.org/~dconway/Filter-Simple-0.79/lib/Filter/Simple.pm>. This package comes included with Perl 5.8, so you only need to act when you're running Perl 5.6.

Installing Filter::Simple on Windows

Open a command prompt and type:

    ppm install Filter
    ppm install Text-Balanced

Now copy the document at http://search.cpan.org/src/DCONWAY/Filter-Simple-0.79/lib/Filter/Simple.pm to c:\perl\site\lib\Filter\Simple.pm or wherever you store your packages.

Installing Filter::Simple anywhere else

I guess copying Filter::Util::Call, Text::Balanced, Filter::Simple and all their prerequisites from CPAN should work.

EXPORTS

self, class, base.

BUGS

Plenty I'm sure.

UPDATES

Updates to this package will be posted to my weblog http://www.netalive.org/swsu/ and CPAN as soon as I get access there.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2004 Henning Koch. All rights reserved.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

AUTHOR

Henning Koch <jaz@netalive.org>