=pod =head1 NAME Moose::Cookbook::Recipe1 - The (always classic) B example. =head1 SYNOPSIS package Point; use strict; use warnings; use Moose; has 'x' => (isa => 'Int', is => 'ro'); has 'y' => (isa => 'Int', is => 'rw'); sub clear { my $self = shift; $self->{x} = 0; $self->y(0); } package Point3D; use strict; use warnings; use Moose; extends 'Point'; has 'z' => (isa => 'Int'); after 'clear' => sub { my $self = shift; $self->{z} = 0; }; =head1 DESCRIPTION This is the classic Point example. This one in particular I took from the Perl 6 Apocalypse 12 document, but it is similar to the example found in the classic K&R C book as well, and many other places. And now, onto the code: As with all Perl 5 classes, a Moose class is defined in a package. Of course we always use C and C (don't forget that a kitten will die if you don't) and then we C. By loading Moose, we are enabeling the Moose "environment" to be loaded within our package. This means that we export some functions which serve as Moose "keywords". This is nothing fancier than that, just plain old exported functions. Another important thing happens at this stage as well. Moose will automatically set your package's superclass to be L. The reason we do this, is so that we can be sure that you will inherit from L and get the benefits that provides (see the L for those details). However, you don't actually I to inherit from L if you don't want to, all other features of Moose are still accessible to you. Now, onto the keywords. The first one we see here is C, which defines an instance attribute in your class. has 'x' => (isa => 'Int', is => 'ro'); This will create an attribute named C, it will expect that the value stored in the attribute to pass the type constraint C (1), and the accessor generated for this attribute will be read-only (abbreviated as C). The next C line is very similar, with only one difference. has 'y' => (isa => 'Int', is => 'rw'); For the C attribute a read/write accessor will be generated (abbreviated as C). At this point the attributes have been defined, and it is time to define our methods. In Moose, as with regular Perl 5 OO, a method is just a subroutine defined within the package. So here we create the C method. sub clear { my $self = shift; $self->{x} = 0; $self->y(0); } It is pretty standard, the only thing to note is that we are directly accessing the C slot in the instance L<(2)>. This is because the value was created with a read-only accessor. This also shows that Moose objects are not anything out of the ordinary, but just regular old blessed HASH references. This means they are very compatible with other Perl 5 (non-Moose) classes as well. The next part of the code to review is the B subclass, B. The first item you might notice is that we do not use the standard C declaration here. Instead we use the Moose keyword C like so: extends 'Point'; This keyword will function very much like C does in that it will make an attempt to load your class if it has not already been loaded. However, it differs on one important point. The C keyword will overwrite any previous values in your package's C<@ISA>, where C will C values onto the package's C<@ISA>. It is my opinion that the behavior of C is more intuitive in that it is more explicit about defining the superclass relationship. A small digression here, both Moose and C support multiple inheritence. You simply pass all the superclasses to C, like so: extends 'Foo', 'Bar', 'Baz'; Now, back to our B class. The next thing we do is to create a new attribute for B called C. has 'z' => (isa => 'Int'); As with B's C and C attributes, this attribute has a type constraint of C, but it differs in that it does B ask for any autogenerated accessors. The result being (aside from breaking object encapsulation), that C is a private attribute. Next comes another Moose feature which we call method "modifiers" (or method "advice" for the AOP inclined). The modifier used here is the C modifier, and looks like this: after 'clear' => sub { my $self = shift; $self->{z} = 0; }; This modifier tells Moose to install a C method for B that will first run the C method for the superclass (in this case C), and then run this method I it (passing in the same arguments as the original method). Now, of course using the C modifier is not the only way to accomplish this. I mean, after all, this B Perl right? You would get the same results with this code: sub clear { my $self = shift; $self->SUPER::clear(); $self->{z} = 0; } You could also use another Moose method modifier, C here, and get the same results again. Here is how that would look. override 'clear' => sub { my $self = shift; super(); $self->{z} = 0; }; The C modifier allows you to use the C keyword within it to dispatch to the superclass's method in a very Ruby-ish style. Now of course, what use is a class if you cant instantiate objects with it. Now since B inherits from L, it will inherit the default L constructor called C. Here are two examples of how that is used: my $point = Point->new(x => 1, y => 2); my $point3d = Point3D->new(x => 1, y => 2, z => 3); As you can see, C accepts named argument pairs for any of the attributes. It does not I that you pass in the all the attributes, and it will politely ignore any named arguments it does not recognize. From here on, you can use C<$point> and C<$point3d> just as you would any other Perl 5 object. For a more detailed example of what can be done, you can refer to the F test file. =head1 CONCLUSION I hope this recipe has given you some explaination of how to use Moose to build you Perl 5 classes. The next recipe will build upon the basics shown here with more complex attributes and methods. Please read on :) =head1 FOOTNOTES =over 4 =item (1) Several default type constraints are provided by Moose, of which C is one. For more information on the built-in type constraints and the type constraint system in general, see the L documentation. =item (2) Future plans for Moose include allowing for alternate instance structures such as blessed ARRAY refs and such. If you want you Moose classes to be interchangable, it is advised that you avoid direct instance access, like that which is shown above. =back =head1 SEE ALSO =over 4 =item Method Modifiers The concept of method modifiers is directly ripped off from CLOS. A great explaination of them can be found by following this link. L =back =head1 AUTHOR Stevan Little Estevan@iinteractive.comE =head1 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE Copyright 2006 by Infinity Interactive, Inc. L This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. =cut