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

Will be posted to CPAN.

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>