1UNIVERSAL::can(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation UNIVERSAL::can(3)
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6 UNIVERSAL::can - work around buggy code calling UNIVERSAL::can() as a
7 function
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10 To use this module, simply:
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12 use UNIVERSAL::can;
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15 The UNIVERSAL class provides a few default methods so that all objects
16 can use them. Object orientation allows programmers to override these
17 methods in subclasses to provide more specific and appropriate
18 behavior.
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20 Some authors call methods in the UNIVERSAL class on potential invocants
21 as functions, bypassing any possible overriding. This is wrong and you
22 should not do it. Unfortunately, not everyone heeds this warning and
23 their bad code can break your good code.
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25 This module replaces "UNIVERSAL::can()" with a method that checks to
26 see if the first argument is a valid invocant has its own "can()"
27 method. If so, it gives a warning and calls the overridden method,
28 working around buggy code. Otherwise, everything works as you might
29 expect.
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31 Some people argue that you must call "UNIVERSAL::can()" as a function
32 because you don't know if your proposed invocant is a valid invocant.
33 That's silly. Use "blessed()" from Scalar::Util if you want to check
34 that the potential invocant is an object or call the method anyway in
35 an "eval" block and check for failure (though check the exception
36 returned, as a poorly-written "can()" method could break Liskov and
37 throw an exception other than "You can't call a method on this type of
38 invocant").
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40 Just don't break working code.
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43 chromatic, "<chromatic@wgz.org>"
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46 Please report any bugs or feature requests to
47 "bug-universal-can@rt.cpan.org", or through the web interface at
48 <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=UNIVERSAL-can>. This
49 will contact me, hold onto patches so I don't drop them, and will
50 notify you of progress on your request as I make changes.
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53 Inspired by UNIVERSAL::isa by Yuval Kogman, Autrijus Tang, and myself.
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55 Adam Kennedy has tirelessly made me tired by reporting potential bugs
56 and suggesting ideas that found actual bugs.
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58 Mark Clements helped to track down an invalid invocant bug.
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60 Curtis "Ovid" Poe finally provided the inspiration I needed to clean up
61 the interface.
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63 Peter du Marchie van Voorthuysen identified and fixed a problem with
64 calling "SUPER::can".
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66 Daniel LeWarne found and fixed a deep recursion error.
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68 Norbert Buchmüller fixed an overloading bug in blessed invocants.
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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 Copyright (c) 2005 - 2014, chromatic. This module is made available
75 under the same terms as Perl 5.12.
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79perl v5.32.1 2021-01-27 UNIVERSAL::can(3)