1UNIVERSAL::can(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation UNIVERSAL::can(3)
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6 UNIVERSAL::can - Hack around people calling UNIVERSAL::can() as a
7 function
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10 Version 1.14
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13 To use this module, simply:
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15 use UNIVERSAL::can;
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18 The UNIVERSAL class provides a few default methods so that all objects
19 can use them. Object orientation allows programmers to override these
20 methods in subclasses to provide more specific and appropriate
21 behavior.
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23 Some authors call methods in the UNIVERSAL class on potential invocants
24 as functions, bypassing any possible overriding. This is wrong and you
25 should not do it. Unfortunately, not everyone heeds this warning and
26 their bad code can break your good code.
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28 This module replaces "UNIVERSAL::can()" with a method that checks to
29 see if the first argument is a valid invocant has its own "can()"
30 method. If so, it gives a warning and calls the overridden method,
31 working around buggy code. Otherwise, everything works as you might
32 expect.
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34 Some people argue that you must call "UNIVERSAL::can()" as a function
35 because you don't know if your proposed invocant is a valid invocant.
36 That's silly. Use "blessed()" from Scalar::Util if you want to check
37 that the potential invocant is an object or call the method anyway in
38 an "eval" block and check for failure (though check the exception
39 returned, as a poorly-written "can()" method could break Liskov and
40 throw an exception other than "You can't call a method on this type of
41 invocant").
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43 Just don't break working code.
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46 chromatic, "<chromatic@wgz.org>"
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49 Please report any bugs or feature requests to
50 "bug-universal-can@rt.cpan.org", or through the web interface at
51 http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=UNIVERSAL-can
52 <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=UNIVERSAL-can>. This
53 will contact me, hold onto patches so I don't drop them, and will
54 notify you of progress on your request as I make changes.
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57 Inspired by UNIVERSAL::isa by Yuval Kogman, Autrijus Tang, and myself.
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59 Adam Kennedy has tirelessly made me tired by reporting potential bugs
60 and suggesting ideas that found actual bugs.
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62 Mark Clements helped to track down an invalid invocant bug.
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64 Curtis "Ovid" Poe finally provided the inspiration I needed to clean up
65 the interface.
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67 Peter du Marchie van Voorthuysen identified and fixed a problem with
68 calling "SUPER::can".
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70 The Perl QA list had a huge... discussion... which inspired my
71 realization that this module needed to do what it does now.
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74 Artistic License 2.0, copyright (c) 2005 - 2009 chromatic. Some rights
75 reserved.
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79perl v5.12.0 2010-05-07 UNIVERSAL::can(3)