NAME

Acme::Damn - 'Unbless' Perl objects.

SYNOPSIS

use Acme::Damn;

my $ref = ... some reference ...
my $obj = bless $ref , 'Some::Class';

... do something with your object ...

   $ref = damn $obj;   # recover the original reference (unblessed)

... neither $ref nor $obj are Some::Class objects ...

DESCRIPTION

Acme::Damn provides a single routine, damn(), which takes a blessed reference (a Perl object), and unblesses it, to return the original reference. I can't think of any reason why you might want to do this, but just because it's of no use doesn't mean that you shouldn't be able to do it.

EXPORT

By default, Acme::Damn exports the method damn() into the current namespace. Aliases for damn() (see below) may be imported upon request.

Methods

damn object

damn() accepts a single blessed reference as its argument, and returns that reference unblessed. If object is not a blessed reference, then damn() will die with an error.

Method Aliases

Not everyone likes to damn the same way or in the same language, so Acme::Damn offers the ability to specify any alias on import, provided that alias is a valid Perl subroutine name (i.e. all characters match \w).

use Acme::Damn qw( unbless );
use Acme::Damn qw( foo );
use Acme::Damn qw( unblessthyself );
use Acme::Damn qw( recant );

Version 0.02 supported a defined list of aliases, and this has been replaced in v0.03 by the ability to import any alias for damn().

WARNING

Just as bless doesn't call an object's initialisation code, damn doesn't invoke an object's DESTROY method. For objects that need to be DESTROYed, either don't damn them, or call DESTROY before judgement is passed.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Claes Jacobsson <claes@surfar.nu> for suggesting the use of aliases.

SEE ALSO

bless, perlboot, perltoot, perltooc, perlbot, perlobj.

AUTHOR

Ian Brayshaw, <ian@onemore.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright 2003-2006 Ian Brayshaw

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