Class::MOP(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation Class::MOP(3)NAMEClass::MOP - A Meta Object Protocol for Perl 5
VERSION
version 2.0402
DESCRIPTION
This module is a fully functioning meta object protocol for the Perl 5
object system. It makes no attempt to change the behavior or
characteristics of the Perl 5 object system, only to create a protocol
for its manipulation and introspection.
That said, it does attempt to create the tools for building a rich set
of extensions to the Perl 5 object system. Every attempt has been made
to abide by the spirit of the Perl 5 object system that we all know and
love.
This documentation is sparse on conceptual details. We suggest looking
at the items listed in the "SEE ALSO" section for more information. In
particular the book "The Art of the Meta Object Protocol" was very
influential in the development of this system.
What is a Meta Object Protocol?
A meta object protocol is an API to an object system.
To be more specific, it abstracts the components of an object system
(classes, object, methods, object attributes, etc.). These abstractions
can then be used to inspect and manipulate the object system which they
describe.
It can be said that there are two MOPs for any object system; the
implicit MOP and the explicit MOP. The implicit MOP handles things like
method dispatch or inheritance, which happen automatically as part of
how the object system works. The explicit MOP typically handles the
introspection/reflection features of the object system.
All object systems have implicit MOPs. Without one, they would not
work. Explicit MOPs are much less common, and depending on the language
can vary from restrictive (Reflection in Java or C#) to wide open (CLOS
is a perfect example).
Yet Another Class Builder! Why?
This is not a class builder so much as a class builder builder. The
intent is that an end user will not use this module directly, but
instead this module is used by module authors to build extensions and
features onto the Perl 5 object system.
This system is used by Moose, which supplies a powerful class builder
system built entirely on top of "Class::MOP".
Who is this module for?
This module is for anyone who has ever created or wanted to create a
module for the Class:: namespace. The tools which this module provides
make doing complex Perl 5 wizardry simpler, by removing such barriers
as the need to hack symbol tables, or understand the fine details of
method dispatch.
What changes do I have to make to use this module?
This module was designed to be as unintrusive as possible. Many of its
features are accessible without any change to your existing code. It is
meant to be a compliment to your existing code and not an intrusion on
your code base. Unlike many other Class:: modules, this module does not
require you subclass it, or even that you "use" it in within your
module's package.
The only features which requires additions to your code are the
attribute handling and instance construction features, and these are
both completely optional features. The only reason for this is because
Perl 5's object system does not actually have these features built in.
More information about this feature can be found below.
About Performance
It is a common misconception that explicit MOPs are a performance hit.
This is not a universal truth, it is a side-effect of some specific
implementations. For instance, using Java reflection is slow because
the JVM cannot take advantage of any compiler optimizations, and the
JVM has to deal with much more runtime type information as well.
Reflection in C# is marginally better as it was designed into the
language and runtime (the CLR). In contrast, CLOS (the Common Lisp
Object System) was built to support an explicit MOP, and so performance
is tuned for it.
This library in particular does its absolute best to avoid putting any
drain at all upon your code's performance. In fact, by itself it does
nothing to affect your existing code. So you only pay for what you
actually use.
About Metaclass compatibility
This module makes sure that all metaclasses created are both upwards
and downwards compatible. The topic of metaclass compatibility is
highly esoteric and is something only encountered when doing deep and
involved metaclass hacking. There are two basic kinds of metaclass
incompatibility; upwards and downwards.
Upwards metaclass compatibility means that the metaclass of a given
class is either the same as (or a subclass of) all of the class's
ancestors.
Downward metaclass compatibility means that the metaclasses of a given
class's ancestors are all either the same as (or a subclass of) that
metaclass.
Here is a diagram showing a set of two classes ("A" and "B") and two
metaclasses ("Meta::A" and "Meta::B") which have correct metaclass
compatibility both upwards and downwards.
+---------+ +---------+
| Meta::A |<----| Meta::B | <....... (instance of )
+---------+ +---------+ <------- (inherits from)
^ ^
: :
+---------+ +---------+
| A |<----| B |
+---------+ +---------+
In actuality, all of a class's metaclasses must be compatible, not just
the class metaclass. That includes the instance, attribute, and method
metaclasses, as well as the constructor and destructor classes.
"Class::MOP" will attempt to fix some simple types of
incompatibilities. If all the metaclasses for the parent class are
subclasses of the child's metaclasses then we can simply replace the
child's metaclasses with the parent's. In addition, if the child is
missing a metaclass that the parent has, we can also just make the
child use the parent's metaclass.
As I said this is a highly esoteric topic and one you will only run
into if you do a lot of subclassing of Class::MOP::Class. If you are
interested in why this is an issue see the paper Uniform and safe
metaclass composition linked to in the "SEE ALSO" section of this
document.
Using custom metaclasses
Always use the metaclass pragma when using a custom metaclass, this
will ensure the proper initialization order and not accidentally create
an incorrect type of metaclass for you. This is a very rare problem,
and one which can only occur if you are doing deep metaclass
programming. So in other words, don't worry about it.
Note that if you're using Moose we encourage you to not use metaclass
pragma, and instead use Moose::Util::MetaRole to apply roles to a
class's metaclasses. This topic is covered at length in various
Moose::Cookbook recipes.
PROTOCOLS
The meta-object protocol is divided into 4 main sub-protocols:
The Class protocol
This provides a means of manipulating and introspecting a Perl 5 class.
It handles symbol table hacking for you, and provides a rich set of
methods that go beyond simple package introspection.
See Class::MOP::Class for more details.
The Attribute protocol
This provides a consistent representation for an attribute of a Perl 5
class. Since there are so many ways to create and handle attributes in
Perl 5 OO, the Attribute protocol provide as much of a unified approach
as possible. Of course, you are always free to extend this protocol by
subclassing the appropriate classes.
See Class::MOP::Attribute for more details.
The Method protocol
This provides a means of manipulating and introspecting methods in the
Perl 5 object system. As with attributes, there are many ways to
approach this topic, so we try to keep it pretty basic, while still
making it possible to extend the system in many ways.
See Class::MOP::Method for more details.
The Instance protocol
This provides a layer of abstraction for creating object instances.
Since the other layers use this protocol, it is relatively easy to
change the type of your instances from the default hash reference to
some other type of reference. Several examples are provided in the
examples/ directory included in this distribution.
See Class::MOP::Instance for more details.
FUNCTIONS
Note that this module does not export any constants or functions.
Utility functions
Note that these are all called as functions, not methods.
Class::MOP::get_code_info($code)
This function returns two values, the name of the package the $code
is from and the name of the $code itself. This is used by several
elements of the MOP to determine where a given $code reference is
from.
Class::MOP::class_of($instance_or_class_name)
This will return the metaclass of the given instance or class name.
If the class lacks a metaclass, no metaclass will be initialized,
and "undef" will be returned.
Metaclass cache functions
Class::MOP holds a cache of metaclasses. The following are functions
(not methods) which can be used to access that cache. It is not
recommended that you mess with these. Bad things could happen, but if
you are brave and willing to risk it: go for it!
Class::MOP::get_all_metaclasses
This will return a hash of all the metaclass instances that have
been cached by Class::MOP::Class, keyed by the package name.
Class::MOP::get_all_metaclass_instances
This will return a list of all the metaclass instances that have
been cached by Class::MOP::Class.
Class::MOP::get_all_metaclass_names
This will return a list of all the metaclass names that have been
cached by Class::MOP::Class.
Class::MOP::get_metaclass_by_name($name)
This will return a cached Class::MOP::Class instance, or nothing if
no metaclass exists with that $name.
Class::MOP::store_metaclass_by_name($name, $meta)
This will store a metaclass in the cache at the supplied $key.
Class::MOP::weaken_metaclass($name)
In rare cases (e.g. anonymous metaclasses) it is desirable to store
a weakened reference in the metaclass cache. This function will
weaken the reference to the metaclass stored in $name.
Class::MOP::metaclass_is_weak($name)
Returns true if the metaclass for $name has been weakened (via
"weaken_metaclass").
Class::MOP::does_metaclass_exist($name)
This will return true of there exists a metaclass stored in the
$name key, and return false otherwise.
Class::MOP::remove_metaclass_by_name($name)
This will remove the metaclass stored in the $name key.
Some utility functions (such as "Class::MOP::load_class") that were
previously defined in "Class::MOP" regarding loading of classes have
been extracted to Class::Load. Please see Class::Load for
documentation.
SEE ALSO
Books
There are very few books out on Meta Object Protocols and Metaclasses
because it is such an esoteric topic. The following books are really
the only ones I have found. If you know of any more, please email me
and let me know, I would love to hear about them.
The Art of the Meta Object Protocol
Advances in Object-Oriented Metalevel Architecture and Reflection
Putting MetaClasses to Work
Smalltalk: The Language
Papers
"Uniform and safe metaclass composition"
An excellent paper by the people who brought us the original Traits
paper. This paper is on how Traits can be used to do safe
metaclass composition, and offers an excellent introduction section
which delves into the topic of metaclass compatibility.
<http://www.iam.unibe.ch/~scg/Archive/Papers/Duca05ySafeMetaclassTrait.pdf>
"Safe Metaclass Programming"
This paper seems to precede the above paper, and propose a mix-in
based approach as opposed to the Traits based approach. Both papers
have similar information on the metaclass compatibility problem
space.
<http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/37617.html>
Prior Art
The Perl 6 MetaModel work in the Pugs project
http://svn.openfoundry.org/pugs/misc/Perl-MetaModel/
<http://svn.openfoundry.org/pugs/misc/Perl-MetaModel/>
http://github.com/perl6/p5-modules/tree/master/Perl6-ObjectSpace/
<http://github.com/perl6/p5-modules/tree/master/Perl6-ObjectSpace/>
Articles
CPAN Module Review of Class::MOP
<http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2006/06/cpan_module_review_classmop.html>
SIMILAR MODULES
As I have said above, this module is a class-builder-builder, so it is
not the same thing as modules like Class::Accessor and
Class::MethodMaker. That being said there are very few modules on CPAN
with similar goals to this module. The one I have found which is most
like this module is Class::Meta, although its philosophy and the MOP it
creates are very different from this modules.
BUGS
All complex software has bugs lurking in it, and this module is no
exception.
Please report any bugs to "bug-class-mop@rt.cpan.org", or through the
web interface at <http://rt.cpan.org>.
You can also discuss feature requests or possible bugs on the Moose
mailing list (moose@perl.org) or on IRC at <irc://irc.perl.org/#moose>.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Rob Kinyon
Thanks to Rob for actually getting the development of this module
kick-started.
AUTHOR
Moose is maintained by the Moose Cabal, along with the help of many
contributors. See "CABAL" in Moose and "CONTRIBUTORS" in Moose for
details.
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
This software is copyright (c) 2012 by Infinity Interactive, Inc..
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.
perl v5.14.2 2012-02-04 Class::MOP(3)