==============================================================================
Release of version 1.10 of Class::Multimethods
==============================================================================
DESCRIPTION
NAME
Class::Multimethods - Support multimethods and subroutine
overloading in Perl
SYNOPSIS
# ONLY WORKS UNDER 5.005 OR LATER (NEEDS qr//)
use 5.005;
# IMPORT THE multimethod DECLARATION SUB...
use Class::Multimethods;
# DECLARE VARIOUS MULTIMETHODS CALLED find...
# 1. DO THIS IF find IS CALLED WITH A Container REF AND A Query REF...
multimethod find => (Container, Query)
=> sub { $_[0]->findquery($_[1]) };
# 2. DO THIS IF find IS CALLED WITH A Container REF AND A Sample REF...
multimethod find => (Container, Sample)
=> sub { $_[0]->findlike($_[1]) };
# 3. DO THIS IF find IS CALLED WITH AN Index REF AND A Word REF...
multimethod find => (Index, Word)
=> sub { $_[0]->lookup_word($_[1]) };
# 4. DO THIS IF find IS CALLED WITH AN Index REF AND A qr// PATTERN
multimethod find => (Index, Regexp)
=> sub { $_[0]->lookup_rx($_[1]) };
# 5. DO THIS IF find IS CALLED WITH AN Index REF AND A NUMERIC SCALAR
multimethod find => (Index, '#')
=> sub { $_[0]->lookup_elem($_[1]) };
# 6. DO THIS IF find IS CALLED WITH AN Index REF AND
# A NON-NUMERIC SCALAR
multimethod find => (Index, '$')
=> sub { $_[0]->lookup_str($_[1]) };
# 7. DO THIS IF find IS CALLED WITH AN Index REF AND AN UNBLESSED
# ARRAY REF (NOTE THE RECURSIVE CALL TO THE find MULTIMETHOD)
multimethod find => (Index, ARRAY)
=> sub { map { find($_[0],$_) } @{$_[1]} };
# SET UP SOME OBJECTS...
my $cntr = new Container ('./datafile');
my $indx = $cntr->get_index();
# ...AND SOME INHERITANCE...
@BadWord::ISA = qw( Word );
my $badword = new BadWord("fubar");
# ...AND EXERCISE THEM...
print find($cntr, new Query('cpan OR Perl')); # CALLS 1.
print find($cntr, new Example('by a committee')); # CALLS 2.
print find($indx, new Word('sugar')); # CALLS 3.
print find($indx, $badword); # CALLS 3.
print find($indx, qr/another brick in the Wall/); # CALLS 4.
print find($indx, 7); # CALLS 5.
print find($indx, 'But don't do that.'); # CALLS 6.
print find($indx, [1,"one"]); # CALLS 7,
# THEN 5,
# THEN 6.
INSTALLATION
It's all pure Perl, so just put the .pm file in its appropriate
local Perl subdirectory.
AUTHOR
Damian Conway (
[email protected])
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1999, Damian Conway. All Rights Reserved.
This module is free software. It may be used, redistributed
and/or modified under the same terms as Perl itself.
==============================================================================
CHANGES IN VERSION 1.10
- Fixed a nasty bug in the import method (thanks Larry)
- Added constraints to indicate that the module
doesn't run on Perls earlier than 5.005
- Added &resolve_ambiguous to allow handlers to be
registered for multimethod calls which could be
equally well be disptched to two or more variants
- Added &resolve_no_match to allow handlers to be
registered for multimethod calls which cannot be
dispatched to any variant.
- Documented the syntactic vinegar needed to run under
'use string'
==============================================================================
AVAILABILITY
Class::Multimethods has been uploaded to the CPAN
and is also available from:
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~damian/CPAN/Class-Multimethods.tar.gz
==============================================================================
