=head1 TITLE The AUTOLOAD subroutine should be able to decline a request =head1 VERSION Maintainer: Leon Brocard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: 02 Aug 2000 Version: 1 Mailing List: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Number: 8 =head1 ABSTRACT In Perl 5, the first AUTOLOAD subroutine found in an object's heirachy is used and any other AUTOLOAD subroutines higher up are ignored. I propose that in Perl 6 we allow AUTOLOAD subroutines to decline a request, which allows other AUTOLOADs to cope with it. =head1 DESCRIPTION AUTOLOAD is a very useful and handy way to handle cool and exciting things, but as has been pointed out many times before, only one AUTOLOAD can be called in the object's heirachy, even if multiple ones exist. This is due to the fact that AUTOLOAD subroutines must do something - they can not currently decline a request. I propose one of the methods which has previously been discussed on p5p. =head1 IMPLEMENTATION Instead of calling the right thing or actually doing the right thing, AUTOLOAD subroutines should return a coderef which will be run as if it were the method called. If an AUTOLOAD subroutine does not wish to cope with a method call, it should return undef. Perl would then walk the OO heirachy and find the next AUTOLOAD to call, eventually failing with an error if no AUTOLOAD method is found which will accept the call. =head2 $AUTOLOAD While we're at it, it may be a good idea to remove the global $AUTOLOAD variable and instead pass it as the first parameter of the AUTOLOAD subroutine call. =head1 REFERENCES Some posts on p5p which I've yet to find again.
