package UNIVERSAL::can; # ABSTRACT: work around buggy code calling UNIVERSAL::can() as a function $UNIVERSAL::can::VERSION = '1.20140328'; use strict; use warnings; use 5.008; use vars qw( $recursing $always_warn ); use Scalar::Util 'blessed'; use warnings::register; my $orig; BEGIN { $orig = \&UNIVERSAL::can; no warnings 'redefine'; *UNIVERSAL::can = \&can; } sub import { my $class = shift; for my $import (@_) { $always_warn = 1 if $import eq '-always_warn'; no strict 'refs'; *{ caller() . '::can' } = \&can if $import eq 'can'; } } sub can { my $caller = caller(); local $@; # don't get into a loop here goto &$orig if $recursing || ( defined $caller && defined $_[0] && eval { local $recursing = 1; warnings->unimport( 'UNIVERSAL::isa' ) if $INC{'UNIVERSAL::isa'}; $caller->isa(blessed $_[0] || $_[0]) } ); # call an overridden can() if it exists my $can = eval { $_[0]->$orig('can') || 0 }; # but only if it's a real class goto &$orig unless $can; # but not if it inherited this one goto &$orig if $can == \&UNIVERSAL::can; # redirect to an overridden can, making sure not to recurse and warning local $recursing = 1; my $invocant = shift; _report_warning(); return $invocant->can(@_); } sub _report_warning { if ( $always_warn || warnings::enabled() ) { my $calling_sub = ( caller(2) )[3] || ''; warnings::warn("Called UNIVERSAL::can() as a function, not a method") if $calling_sub !~ /::can$/; } return; } 1; __END__ =encoding utf8 =head1 NAME UNIVERSAL::can - work around buggy code calling UNIVERSAL::can() as a function =head1 SYNOPSIS To use this module, simply: use UNIVERSAL::can; =head1 DESCRIPTION The UNIVERSAL class provides a few default methods so that all objects can use them. Object orientation allows programmers to override these methods in subclasses to provide more specific and appropriate behavior. Some authors call methods in the UNIVERSAL class on potential invocants as functions, bypassing any possible overriding. This is wrong and you should not do it. Unfortunately, not everyone heeds this warning and their bad code can break your good code. This module replaces C with a method that checks to see if the first argument is a valid invocant has its own C method. If so, it gives a warning and calls the overridden method, working around buggy code. Otherwise, everything works as you might expect. Some people argue that you must call C as a function because you don't know if your proposed invocant is a valid invocant. That's silly. Use C from L if you want to check that the potential invocant is an object or call the method anyway in an C block and check for failure (though check the exception I, as a poorly-written C method could break Liskov and throw an exception other than "You can't call a method on this type of invocant"). Just don't break working code. =head1 AUTHOR chromatic, C<< >> =head1 BUGS Please report any bugs or feature requests to C, or through the web interface at L. This will contact me, hold onto patches so I don't drop them, and will notify you of progress on your request as I make changes. =head1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Inspired by L by Yuval Kogman, Autrijus Tang, and myself. Adam Kennedy has tirelessly made me tired by reporting potential bugs and suggesting ideas that found actual bugs. Mark Clements helped to track down an invalid invocant bug. Curtis "Ovid" Poe finally provided the inspiration I needed to clean up the interface. Peter du Marchie van Voorthuysen identified and fixed a problem with calling C. Daniel LeWarne found and fixed a deep recursion error. Norbert Buchmüller fixed an overloading bug in blessed invocants. The Perl QA list had a huge... discussion... which inspired my realization that this module needed to do what it does now. =head1 COPYRIGHT & LICENSE Copyright (c) 2005 - 2014, chromatic. This module is made available under the same terms as Perl 5.12. =cut