Class::MakeMethods::Template::Inheritable

NAME

Class::MakeMethods::Template::Inheritable - Overridable data

SYNOPSIS

  package MyClass;
  use Class::MakeMethods( 'Template::Inheritable:scalar' => 'foo' );
  # We now have an accessor method for an "inheritable" scalar value
  
  MyClass->foo( 'Foozle' );   # Set a class-wide value
  print MyClass->foo();       # Retrieve class-wide value
  
  my $obj = MyClass->new(...);
  print $obj->foo();          # All instances "inherit" that value...
  
  $obj->foo( 'Foible' );      # until you set a value for an instance.
  print $obj->foo();          # This now finds object-specific value.
  ...
  
  package MySubClass;
  @ISA = 'MyClass';
  
  print MySubClass->foo();    # Initially same as superclass,
  MySubClass->foo('Foobar');  # but overridable per subclass,
  print $subclass_obj->foo(); # and shared by its instances
  $subclass_obj->foo('Fosil');# until you override them... 
  ...

DESCRIPTION

The MakeMethods subclass provides accessor methods that search an inheritance tree to find a value. This allows you to set a shared or default value for a given class, and optionally override it in a subclass.

Standard Methods

The following methods from Generic should be supported:

  scalar
  string
  string_index (?)
  number
  boolean (?)
  bits (?)
  array (?)
  hash (?)
  tiedhash (?)
  hash_of_arrays (?)
  object (?)
  instance (?)
  array_of_objects (?)
  code (?)
  code_or_scalar (?)

See Class::MakeMethods::Template::Generic for the interfaces and behaviors of these method types. The items marked with a * above are specifically defined in this package, whereas the others are formed automatically by the interaction of this package's generic settings with the code templates provided by the Generic superclass. The items marked with a ? above have not been tested sufficiently; please inform the author if they do not function as you would expect.

SEE ALSO

See Class::MakeMethods for general information about this distribution. See Class::MakeMethods::Template for more about this family of subclasses. See Class::MakeMethods::Template::Generic for information about the various accessor interfaces subclassed herein. If you just need scalar accessors, see Class::Data::Inheritable for a very elegant and efficient implementation.