--- name: "Class::MakeMethods::Docs::RelatedModules" section: "3pm" platform: "linux" package: "libclass-makemethods-perl" version: "1.01-7" release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/Class::MakeMethods::Docs::RelatedModules" --- # Class::MakeMethods::Docs::RelatedModules(3pm) Survey of Class Builders ## NAME Class::MakeMethods::Docs::RelatedModules - Survey of Class Builders ## SYNOPSIS ``` http://search.cpan.org/search?mode=module&query=Class ``` ## DESCRIPTION There are a variety of modules on CPAN dedicated to the purpose of generating common constructor and accessor methods. Below, I survey several of these, summarizing some basic features and technical approaches, and comparing them to Class::MakeMethods and other modules. ### Caution **Please note that these comments are for basic comparison purposes** **only and may be incorrect or out of date.** Please consult the documentation from a current version of each module for more specific details. Corrections and clarifications would by welcomed by the author at the email address below. ### Points of Comparison In general, I compared the following characteristics: - Distribution Is it included with Perl, or on CPAN? Is it being actively maintained? - Usage How do you go about declaring your class's methods? - Mechanism How are they generated and delivered? - Instance type Are the objects of your class blessed hashes, or something else? - Core Methods Does the module provide a constructor and basic accessors? Are there specialized methods for hash-ref, array-ref, and object-ref accessors? - Extensible Can you subclass the package to create new types of methods, or is there some other way to extend it? - Other Methods Other types of methods provided. - Emulator Does Class::MakeMethods provide a drop-in replacement for this module? - Comments Other characteristics or features of note. ## RELATED MODULES ### accessors - Distribution CPAN. Uploaded Sep 2003. - Comments I have not yet reviewed this module in detail. - Example ``` package MyObject; use accessors qw( foo bar baz ); ``` ### Attribute::Property - Distribution CPAN. - Comments I have not yet reviewed this module in detail. ### Class::Accessor - Distribution CPAN. Last update 4/01. - Usage Inherit and call function with declaration arguments - Mechanism Generates and installs closures - Instance Type Hash. - Subclasses Cleanly Cleanly. - Standard Methods Scalar accessors. - Extensible Yes. - Comments Accessor methods call overwritable `"self-mk_accessors(qw( simple ordered mapping obj_ref )); ``` ### Class::Class - Distribution CPAN. Last update 1/00. - Usage Inherit and fill `%MEMBERS` hash; methods created when first object is created - Mechanism Generates and installs closures - Instance Type Hash. - Subclasses Cleanly Yes. - Standard Methods Constructor and various accessors. - Extensible No. - Example Usage is similar to Class::Struct: ``` package MyObject; use Class::Class; @ISA = qw(Class::Class); %MEMBERS = ( simple => '$', ordered => '@', mapping => '%', obj_ref => 'FooObject' ); ``` - Other Method Types Provides a **polymorph()** method that is similar to Class::Method's "ClassName:class\_name -require". ### Class::Constructor - Distribution CPAN. Last update 11/01. - Usage Inherit and call function with declaration arguments - Mechanism Generates and installs closures - Instance Type Hash. - Subclasses Cleanly Cleanly. - Standard Methods Hash constructor, with bells. - Extensible No. - Emulator No, but possible. - Example ``` package MyObject; @ISA = qw(Class::Constructor); MyObject->mk_constructor( Name => 'new' ); ``` ### Class::Classgen - Distribution CPAN. Last update 12/00. - Usage Pre-processor run against declaration files. - Mechanism Assembles and saves code file - Instance Type Hash. - Subclasses Cleanly Yes. (I think.) - Standard Methods Constructor and various accessors. - Extensible No. (I think.) - Example ``` header: package MyObject; variables: $simple @ordered %mapping $obj_ref ``` ### Class::Contract - Distribution CPAN. Last update 5/01. - Usage Call function with declaration arguments - Mechanism Generates and installs closures - Instance Type Scalar reference with external data storage. - Subclasses Cleanly Yes. - Standard Methods Constructor and various accessors. - Extensible Yes. (I think.) - Comments Supports pre- and post-conditions, class invariants, and other software engineering goodies. - Example ``` package MyObject; use Class::Contract; contract { ctor 'new'; attr 'simple' => SCALAR; attr 'ordered' => ARRAY; attr 'mapping' => HASH; attr 'obj_ref' => 'FooObject'; } ``` ### Class::Data::Inheritable - Distribution CPAN. Last update 4/00. - Usage Inherit and call function with declaration arguments - Mechanism Generates and installs closures - Instance Type Class data, with inheritance. - Subclasses Cleanly Yes, specifically. - Standard Methods Scalar accessors. - Extensible No. - Example Usage is similar to Class::Accessor: ``` package MyObject; @ISA = qw(Class::Data::Inheritable); MyObject->mk_classdata(qw( simple ordered mapping obj_ref )); ``` - Emulator Yes, Class::MakeMethods::Emulator::Inheritable, passes original test suite. ### Class::Delegate - Distribution CPAN. Uploaded 12/0. - Comments I have not yet reviewed this module in detail. ### Class::Delegation - Distribution CPAN. Uploaded 12/01. - Comments I have not yet reviewed this module in detail. ### Class::Generate - Distribution CPAN. Last update 11/00. - Usage Call function with declaration arguments - Mechanism Assembles and evals code string, or saves code file. - Instance Type Hash. - Subclasses Cleanly Yes. - Standard Methods Constructor and accessors (scalar, array, hash, object, object array, etc). - Extensible Unknown. - Comments Handles private/protected limitations, pre and post conditions, assertions, and more. - Example Usage is similar to Class::Struct: ``` package MyObject; use Class::Generate; class MyObject => [ simple => '$', ordered => '@', mapping => '%', obj_ref => 'FooObject' ]; ``` ### Class::Hook - Distribution CPAN. Uploaded 12/01. - Comments I have not yet reviewed this module in detail. ### Class::Holon - Distribution CPAN. Experimental/Alpha release 07/2001. - Instance Type Hash, array, or flyweight-index. - Subclasses Cleanly No. (I think.) - Standard Methods Constructor and scalar accessors; flywieght objects also get scalar mutator methods. - Extensible No. (I think.) - Comments I'm not sure I understand the intent of this module; perhaps future versions will make this clearer.... ### Class::MethodMaker - Distribution CPAN. Last update 1/01. - Usage Import, or call function, with declaration arguments - Mechanism Generates and installs closures - Instance Type Hash, Static. - Subclasses Cleanly Yes. - Standard Methods Constructor and various accessors. - Extensible Yes. - Example Usage is similar to Class::MakeMethods: ``` package MyObject; use Class::MethodMaker ( new => 'new', get_set => 'simple', list => 'ordered', hash => 'mapping', object => [ 'FooObject' => 'obj_ref' ], ); ``` - Emulator Yes, Class::MakeMethods::Emulator::MethodMaker, passes original test suite. ### Class::MakeMethods - Distribution CPAN. - Usage Import, or call function, with declaration arguments; or if desired, make methods on-demand with Autoload, or declare subroutines with a special Attribute. - Mechanism Generates and installs closures - Instance Type Hash, Array, Scalar, Static, Class data, others. - Subclasses Cleanly Yes. - Standard Methods Constructor and various accessors. - Extensible Yes. - Example Usage is similar to Class::MethodMaker: ``` package MyObject; use Class::MakeMethods::Hash ( new => 'new', scalar => 'simple', array => 'ordered', hash => 'mapping', object => [ 'obj_ref', { class=>'FooObject' } ], ); ``` ### Class::Maker - Distribution CPAN. Last update 7/02. - Usage Call function with declaration arguments. - Mechanism Generates and installs closures (I think). - Instance Type Hash (I think). - Subclasses Cleanly Unknown. - Standard Methods Constructor and various scalar and reference accessors. - Extensible Unknown. - Comments I haven't yet reviewed this module closely. ### Class::SelfMethods - Distribution CPAN. Last update 2/00. - Usage Inherit; methods created via AUTOLOAD - Mechanism Generates and installs closures (I think) - Instance Type Hash. - Subclasses Cleanly Yes. - Standard Methods Constructor and scalar/code accessors (see Comments). - Extensible No. - Comments Individual objects may be assigned a subroutine that will be called as a method on subsequent accesses. If an instance does not have a value for a given accessor, looks for a method defined with a leading underscore. ### Class::Struct - Distribution Included in the standard Perl distribution. Replaces Class::Template. - Usage Call function with declaration arguments - Mechanism Assembles and evals code string - Instance Type Hash or Array - Subclasses Cleanly No. - Standard Methods Constructor and various accessors. - Extensible No. ``` package MyObject; use Class::Struct; struct( simple => '$', ordered => '@', mapping => '%', obj_ref => 'FooObject' ); ``` - Emulator Yes, Class::MakeMethods::Emulator::Struct. ### Class::StructTemplate - Distribution CPAN. Last update 12/00. No documentation available. - Usage Unknown. - Mechanism Unknown. ### Class::Template - Distribution CPAN. Out of date. - Usage Call function with declaration arguments (I think) - Mechanism Assembles and evals code string (I think) - Instance Type Hash. - Subclasses Cleanly Yes. (I think.) - Standard Methods Constructor and various accessors. - Extensible No. (I think.) - Example Usage is similar to Class::Struct: ``` package MyObject; use Class::Template; members MyObject { simple => '$', ordered => '@', mapping => '%', obj_ref => 'FooObject' }; ``` ### Class::Virtual Generates methods that fail with a message indicating that they were not implemented by the subclass. (Cf. 'Template::Universal:croak -abstract'.) Also provides a list of abstract methods that have not been implemented by a subclass. - Distribution CPAN. Last update 3/01. - Extensible Unknown. - Mechanism Uses Class::Data::Inheritable and installs additional closures. ### CodeGen::PerlBean - Distribution CPAN. - Usage Call function with declaration arguments. - Mechanism Generates and writes source code to a file. - Instance Type Hash (I think). - Subclasses Cleanly Unknown. - Standard Methods Constructor and various scalar and reference accessors. - Extensible Unknown. - Comments I haven't yet reviewed this module closely. ### HTML::Mason::MethodMaker - Distribution CPAN. - Usage Package import with declaration arguments - Mechanism Generates and installs closures - Instance Type Hash. - Standard Methods Scalar accessors. - Extensible No. - Example ``` use HTML::Mason::MethodMaker ( read_write => [ qw( simple ordered mapping obj_ref ) ] ); ``` ## TO DO The following modules are relevant but have not yet been cataloged above. ### Attribute::Property ### Class::Accessor::Chained ### Class::Accessor::Lvalue ### Class::Accessor::Ref ### Class::AutoClass ### Class::Builder ### Class::Member ### Class::Trigger ## SEE ALSO See Class::MakeMethods for general information about this distribution. ## CREDITS AND COPYRIGHT ### Developed By ``` M. Simon Cavalletto, simonm@cavalletto.org Evolution Softworks, www.evoscript.org ``` ### Copyright Copyright 2002 Matthew Simon Cavalletto. Portions copyright 2000, 2001 Evolution Online Systems, Inc. ### License You may use, modify, and distribute this document under the same terms as Perl.