The following module was proposed for inclusion in the Module List:
modid: Class::Declare
DSLIP: RdpOp
description: Classes with method/attribute access control
userid: IBB (Ian Brayshaw)
chapterid: 6 (Data_Type_Utilities)
communities:
comp.lang.perl.modules
similar:
Class::ArrayObjects Class::Contract
rationale:
I am not 100% happy with the choice of Class::Declare, even though
it describes the module and how it's used: you declare the
attributes and methods and you declare how they are to be accessed
(public, private, protected, etc). Having run the name past
comp.lang.perl.modules as well as privately amoungst fellow
developers I've received no other suggestions.
Class::Declare offers a clean, Perl-ish interface, that would be
familiar to developers more accustomed to C++ and Java classes. It
also provides complete data encapsulation: the only way to access
object and class data is through the object and class accessors.
From the README:
NAME
Class::Declare - Declare classes with public, private and protected
attributes and methods.
SYNOPSIS package My::Class;
use strict; use warnings;
use base qw( Class::Declare );
__PACKAGE__->declare( public => { public_attr => 42 } ,
private => { private_attr => 'Foo' } ,
protected => { protected_attr => 'Bar' } ,
class => { class_attr => [ 3.141 ] }
static => { static_attr => { a => 1 } } ,
shared => { shared_attr => \'string' } ,
friends => 'main::trustedsub' ,
init => sub { # object initialisation
...
1;
} ,
strict => 0
);
sub publicmethod {
my $self = __PACKAGE__->public( shift );
... }
The motivation behind the module was to provide a robust and
relatively secure framework for generating classes that supported
access control through standard OO relationships of public, private
and protected. Class::Declare objects are blessed scalar references,
helping to ensure access to object and class internals occurs only
through accessors (unlike using a blessed hash reference, where the
user can access the hash directly).
This type of class representation and construction is perhaps more
familiar to those coming from a Java or C++ background, and would
make porting of applications written in those languages more
straight forward. Class::Declare supports public, private and
protected instance and class methods and attributes.
I have used this approach (a predecessor to Class::Declare) in
large applications, and found the access control mechanisms (which
may be disabled in a production environment on a per-module basis to
accelerate the code execution) to be a great asset during
development.
Class::Declare supports multiple inheritance, as well as
serialisation via Storable. It also provides a number of helper
routines, such as automatic processing and validation of named
parameters, and a dump() routine for pretty-printing object and
class attributes while obeying the access control mechanisms. (Since
there is no way to access the internal hash in which Class::Declare
stores the object attribute values, Data::Dumper cannot give
meaningful output for Class::Declare objects.)
enteredby: IBB (Ian Brayshaw)
enteredon: Wed Jun 4 11:08:37 2003 GMT
The resulting entry would be:
Class::
::Declare RdpOp Classes with method/attribute access control IBB
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