recipe touchups

[gitmo/Moose.git] / lib / Moose / Cookbook / Recipe3.pod

=pod

=head1 NAME

Moose::Cookbook::Recipe3 - A lazy B<BinaryTree> example

=head1 SYNOPSIS

  package BinaryTree;
  use Moose;
  
  has 'node' => (is => 'rw', isa => 'Any');
  
  has 'parent' => (
      is        => 'rw',
      isa       => 'BinaryTree',	
      predicate => 'has_parent',
      weak_ref  => 1,
  );
  
  has 'left' => (
      is        => 'rw',	
      isa       => 'BinaryTree',		
      predicate => 'has_left',  
      lazy      => 1,
      default   => sub { BinaryTree->new(parent => $_[0]) },       
  );
  
  has 'right' => (
      is        => 'rw',	
      isa       => 'BinaryTree',		
      predicate => 'has_right',   
      lazy      => 1,       
      default   => sub { BinaryTree->new(parent => $_[0]) },       
  );
  
  before 'right', 'left' => sub {
      my ($self, $tree) = @_;
      $tree->parent($self) if defined $tree;   
  };

=head1 DESCRIPTION

In this recipe we take a closer look at attributes, and see how 
some of their more advanced features can be used to create fairly 
complex behaviors. 

The class in this recipe is a classic binary tree, each node in the 
tree is represented by an instance of the B<BinaryTree> class. Each 
instance has a C<node> slot to hold an abitrary value, a C<right> 
slot to hold the right node, a C<left> slot to hold the left node, 
and finally a C<parent> slot to hold a reference back up the tree. 

Now, let's start with the code, our first attribute is the C<node> 
slot, defined as such:

  has 'node' => (is => 'rw', isa => 'Any');

If you recall from the previous recipies, this slot will have a 
read/write accessor generated for it, and has a type constraint on it. 
The new item here is the type constraint of C<Any>. In the type 
constraint heirarchy in L<Moose::Utils::TypeConstraints>, the C<Any> 
constraint is the "root" of the hierarchy. It means exactly what it 
says, it allows anything to pass. Now, you could just as easily have
left out the C<isa>, left the C<node> slot unconstrained and gotten the 
same behavior. But here, we are really including the type constraint 
for the benefit of other programmers, not the computer. It makes 
clear my intent that the C<node> can be of any type, and that the 
class is a polymorphic container. Next, lets move onto the C<parent> 
slot.

  has 'parent' => (
      is        => 'rw',
      isa       => 'BinaryTree',	
      predicate => 'has_parent',
      weak_ref  => 1,
  );

As you already know from reading the previous recipes, this code 
tells you that C<parent> gets a read/write accessor and is constrained 
to only accept instances of B<BinaryTree>. You will of course remember 
from the second recipe that the C<BinaryTree> type constraint is 
automatically created for us by Moose.

The next attribute option is new though, the C<predicate> option. 
This option creates a method, which can be used to check to see if 
a given slot (in this case C<parent>) has a defined value in it. In 
this case it will create a method called C<has_parent>. Quite simple, 
and also quite handy too.

This brings us to our last attribute, and also a new one. Since the 
C<parent> is a circular reference (the tree in C<parent> should 
already have a reference in either it's C<left> or C<right> nodes), 
we want to make sure that it is also a weakened reference to avoid 
memory leaks. The C<weak_ref> attribute option will do just that,  
C<weak_ref> simply takes a boolean value (C<1> or C<0>) and it will 
then add the extra capability to the accessor function to weaken 
the reference of any value stored in the C<parent> slot (1).

Now, onto the C<left> and C<right> attributes. They are essentially 
the same things, only with different names, so I will just describe 
one here.

  has 'left' => (
      is        => 'rw',	
      isa       => 'BinaryTree',		
      predicate => 'has_left',  
      lazy      => 1,
      default   => sub { BinaryTree->new(parent => $_[0]) },       
  );

You already know what the C<is>, C<isa> and C<predicate> options 
do, but now we have two more new options. These two options are 
actually linked together, in fact, you cannot use the C<lazy> 
option unless you have set the C<default> option. The class 
creation will fail with an exception (2).

Before I go into detail about how C<lazy> works, let me first 
explain how C<default> works, and in particular why it is wrapped 
in a CODE ref.

In the second recipe the B<BankAccount>'s C<balance> slot had a 
default value of C<0>. Since Perl will copy strings and numbers 
by value, this was all we had to say. But for any other item 
(ARRAY ref, HASH ref, object instance, etc) you would need to 
wrap this into a CODE reference, so this:

  has 'foo' => (is => 'rw', default => []);

is actually illegal in Moose. Instead, what you really want is 
to do this:

  has 'foo' => (is => 'rw', default => sub { [] });

This assures that each instance of this class will get it's own 
ARRAY ref in the C<foo> slot. 

One other feature of the sub ref version of the C<default> option 
is that when the subroutine is executed (to get back the expected 
default value), we also pass in the instance where the slot will 
be stored. This added feature can come in quite handy at times, as 
is illustrated above, with this code:

  default => sub { BinaryTree->new(parent => $_[0]) },

The default value being generated is a new C<BinaryTree> instance 
for the C<left> (or C<right>) slot. Here we set up the parental 
relationship by passing the current instance to the constructor. 

Now, before we go on to the C<lazy> option, I want you to think 
for a moment. When an instance of this class is created, and the 
slots are being initialized, the "normal" behavior would be for 
the C<left> and C<right> slots to be populated with a new instance
of B<BinaryTree>. In creating that instance of the C<left> or 
C<right> slots, we would need to create new instances to populate 
the C<left> and C<right> slots of I<those> instances. This would 
continue in an I<infinitely recursive spiral of death> until you had 
exhausted all available memory on your machine.

This is, of course, not good :)

Which brings us to the C<lazy> attribute option. The C<lazy> option 
does just what it says. It lazily initializes the slot within the 
instance. This means that it waits till the I<absolute> last possible 
moment to populate the slot. This means that if you, the user, write 
to the slot, everything happens as normal and what you pass in is stored. 
However, if you I<read> the slot, then at that I<exact> moment (and no 
sooner), the slot will be populated with the value of the C<default> 
option.

This option is what allows the B<BinaryTree> class to instantiate
objects without fear of the I<infinitely recursive spiral of death>
mentioned earlier.

So, we have described a quite complex set of behaviors here, and not 
one method had to be written. But wait, we can't get away that 
easily. The autogenerated C<right> and C<left> accessors are not 
completely correct. They will not install the parental relationships 
that we need. We could write our own accessors, but that would require 
us to implement all those features we got automatically (the type 
constraint, the lazy initialization, etc). So instead we use the 
method modifiers again.
  
  before 'right', 'left' => sub {
      my ($self, $tree) = @_;
      $tree->parent($self) if defined $tree;   
  };

This is a C<before> modifier, just like we saw in the second recipe, 
but with two slight differences. First, we are applying this to more 
than one method at a time. Since both the C<left> and C<right> methods 
need the same feature, it makes sense. The second difference is that 
we are not wrapping an inherited method anymore, but instead a method 
of our own local class. Wrapping local methods is no different, the 
only requirement is that the wrappee be created before the wrapper
(after all, you cannot wrap something which doesn't exist right?).

Now, as with all the other recipes, you can go about using 
B<BinaryTree> like any other Perl 5 class. A more detailed example of 
usage can be found in F<t/003_recipe.t>.

=head1 CONCLUSION

This recipe introduced you to some of the more advanced behavioral 
possibilities of Moose's attribute mechanism. I hope that it has 
opened your mind to the powerful possibilities of Moose. In the next 
recipe we explore how we can create custom subtypes and take 
advantage of the plethora of useful modules out on CPAN with Moose.

=head1 FOOTNOTES

=over 4

=item (1)

Weak references are tricky things, and should be used sparingly 
and appropriately (such as in the case of circular refs). If you 
are not careful, you will have slot values disappear "mysteriously"
because perls reference counting garbage collector has gone and 
removed the item you are weak-referencing. 

In short, don't use them unless you know what you are doing :)

=item (2)

You I<can> use the C<default> option without the C<lazy> option if 
you like, as we showed in the second recipe.

=back

=head1 AUTHOR

Stevan Little E<lt>stevan@iinteractive.comE<gt>

=head1 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright 2006 by Infinity Interactive, Inc.

L<http://www.iinteractive.com>

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the same terms as Perl itself.

=cut