NAME

rubyisms - Steal some features from Ruby

SYNOPSIS

 package Foo;
 use rubyisms;
 sub initialize {             # We inherit a new from class Class
   self->{foo} = "bar";       # And we have a receiver, self
   __private_stuff(1,2,3,4);
 }

sub __private_stuff { 
   self->{things} = [ @_ ];   # self is still around
   self->another_method;
}

sub my_method {
   if ($interesting) { ... }
   else { super }             # Despatch to superclass 
}
 
sub array_iterator (&@) {
   yield() for @_;
} 

array_iterator { print $_[0], "\n" } ("Hello", "World");

DESCRIPTION

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. This module exports some functionality to make Perl behave more like Ruby.

Additionally, all classes which use rubyisms inherit from class Class, and take a basic new method from there. (which creates a blessed hash, calls your initialize method on it and returns it.)

EXPORT

self

This returns the current receiver of methods. This is defined as being the first thing which is-a your class which comes first in some method's @_. For instance, in the following case:

sub stuff { 
    my ($self, @args) = @_;
    print self;
}

$self and self are equivalent here. However, in this case:

sub stuff {
    my ($self, @args) = @_;
    _more_stuff("Hi!");
}

sub _more_stuff { print self }

The self in _more_stuff is equivalent to $self in its caller: we walk up the stack until we find something that looks like an object we're interested in. If we don't find an object we're interested in, we assume that self is the current classs.

Obviously you need to be careful with this! Note that stuff expects to be called in the usual method call manner, with the object as the first parameter; meanwhile, _more_stuff expects the receiver to be implicit. Be good and consistent and only use implicit recipients in private methods called from within your class and you'll be all right.

super

When subclassing a class, you occasionally want to despatch control to the superclass - at least conditionally and temporarily. The Perl syntax for calling your superclass is ugly and unwieldy:

$self->SUPER::method(@_);

Especially when compared with its Ruby equivalent:

super;

This module provides that equivalent.

It has been pointed out that using super doesn't let you pass alternate arguments to your superclass's method. If you want to pass different arguments, well, don't use super then. D'oh.

yield

yield provides iterators in Ruby, and now it does so in Perl too. However, in Ruby, methods all take an optional block after their usual arguments. In Perl, we have to fake it. The & subroutine prototype character allows us to take a block and have it passs in as a coderef, but only if it's the first parameter to a subroutine. For instance, here's how you'd normally code an iterator:

sub each_array (&@) {
    my ($coderef, @args) = @_;
    for (@args) {
        $coderef->($_);
    }
}

each_array { print $_[0], "\n" } (10,20,30);

yield just makes that a tiny bit easier, by working out which is the coderef and calling it with the right thing:

sub each_array (&@) {
    yield for @_;
}

yield will call the coderef with $_ implicitly, or any arguments you give it:

sub each_with_index (&@) {
    yield ($_[$_], $_) for 0..$#_;
}

each_with_index { print "The $_[1]th element is $_[0]\n" } @stuff;

Note that this doesn't actually modify @_: the coderef is still $_[0], but yield attempts to avoid yielding onto itself. That is to say, yield does nothing when the first argument passed is the same as the coderef itself.

If you actually do want to call the coderef on itself, i) you're weirder than I am, and ii) call it as something other than the first argument:

yield ("dummy", $_) for @_;

will happily pass the coderef in.

NOTE

The module tries to do the right thing in all cases, and it does do the right thing in the vast majority of cases. But like all labour-saving devices, you give up a little bit of control to gain a bit of convenience. So maybe it'll do the wrong thing in pathological cases. Consider it karmic retribution.

SUPPORT

Beep... beep... this is a recorded announcement:

I've released this software because I find it useful, and I hope you might too. But I am a being of finite time and I'd like to spend more of it writing cool modules like this and less of it answering email, so please excuse me if the support isn't as great as you'd like.

Nevertheless, there is a general discussion list for users of all my modules, to be found at http://lists.netthink.co.uk/listinfo/module-mayhem

If you have a problem with this module, someone there will probably have it too.

AUTHOR

Simon Cozens, simon@cpan.org

SEE ALSO

ruby(1)