NAME

Class::Accessor::Class - simple class variable accessors

VERSION

version 0.504

SYNOPSIS

Set up a module with class accessors:

 package Text::Fortune;

 use base qw(Class::Accessor::Class Exporter);
 Robot->mk_class_accessors(qw(language offensive collection));

 sub fortune { 
   if (__PACKAGE__->offensive) {
	 ..

Then, when using the module:

use Text::Fortune;

Text::Fortune->offensive(1);

print fortune; # prints an offensive fortune

Text::Fortune->language('EO');

print fortune; # prints an offensive fortune in Esperanto

DESCRIPTION

Class::Accessor::Class provides a simple way to create accessor and mutator methods for class variables, just as Class::Accessor provides for objects. It can use either an enclosed lexical variable, or a package variable.

This module was once implemented in terms of Class::Accessor, but changes to that module broke this relationship. Class::Accessor::Class is still a subclass of Class::Accessor, strictly for historical reasons. As a side benefit, a class that isa Class::Accessor::Class is also a Class::Accessor and can use its methods.

PERL VERSION SUPPORT

This code is effectively abandonware. Although releases will sometimes be made to update contact info or to fix packaging flaws, bug reports will mostly be ignored. Feature requests are even more likely to be ignored. (If someone takes up maintenance of this code, they will presumably remove this notice.)

METHODS

mk_class_accessors

package Foo;
use base qw(Class::Accessor::Class);
Foo->mk_class_accessors(qw(foo bar baz));

Foo->foo(10);
my $obj = new Foo;
print $obj->foo;   # 10

This method adds accessors for the named class variables. The accessor will get or set a lexical variable to which the accessor is the only access.

mk_package_accessors

package Foo;
use base qw(Class::Accessor::Class);
Foo->mk_package_accessors(qw(foo bar baz));

Foo->foo(10);
my $obj = new Foo;
print $obj->foo;   # 10
print $Foo::foo;    # 10

This method adds accessors for the named class variables. The accessor will get or set the named variable in the package's symbol table.

DETAILS

make_class_accessor

$accessor = Class->make_class_accessor($field);

This method generates a subroutine reference which acts as an accessor for the named field.

make_package_accessor

$accessor = Class->make_package_accessor($field);

This method generates a subroutine reference which acts as an accessor for the named field, which is stored in the scalar named field in Class's symbol table.

This can be useful for dealing with legacy code, but using package variables is almost never a good idea for new code. Use this with care.

AUTHOR

Ricardo SIGNES <rjbs@semiotic.systems>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2004 by Ricardo SIGNES.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.