File Coverage

blib/lib/Class/Declare.pm

Criterion	Covered	Total	%
statement	430	446	96.4
branch	171	200	85.5
condition	97	155	62.5
subroutine	48	48	100.0
pod	17	20	85.0
total	763	869	87.8

#!/usr/bin/perl -Tw

# $Id: Declare.pm 1518 2010-08-22 23:56:21Z ian $
package Class::Declare;

use strict;
use version;

=head1 NAME

Class::Declare - Declare classes with public, private and protected
attributes and methods.


=head1 SYNOPSIS

  package My::Class;

  use strict;
  use warnings;
  use base qw( Class::Declare );

  __PACKAGE__->declare(

    public     => { public_attr     => 42         }  ,
    private    => { private_attr    => 'Foo'      }  ,
    protected  => { protected_attr  => 'Bar'      }  ,
    class      => { class_attr      => [ 3.141 ]  }
    static     => { static_attr     => { a => 1 } }  ,
    restricted => { restricted_attr => \'string'  }  ,
    abstract   => 'abstract_attr'                    ,
    friends    => 'main::trustedsub'                 ,
    new        => [ 'public_attr' , 'private_attr' ] ,
    init       => sub { # object initialisation
                    ...
                    1;
                  }                                  ,
    strict     => 0

  );

  sub publicmethod {
    my $self = __PACKAGE__->public( shift );
    ...
  }

  sub privatemethod {
    my $self = __PACKAGE__->private( shift );
    ...
  }

  sub protectedmethod {
    my $self = __PACKAGE__->protected( shift );
    ...
  }

  sub classmethod {
    my $self = __PACKAGE__->class( shift );
    ...
  }

  sub staticmethod {
    my $self = __PACKAGE__->static( shift );
    ...
  }

  sub restrictedmethod {
    my $self = __PACKAGE__->restricted( shift );
    ...
  }

  sub abstractmethod { __PACKAGE__->abstract }

  1;

  ...

  my $obj = My::Class->new( public_attr => 'fish' );

=cut


use base qw( Exporter );
use vars qw/ $VERSION @EXPORT_OK %EXPORT_TAGS /;

# the version of this module
             $VERSION = '0.18';

# declare the read-write and read-only methods for export
@EXPORT_OK    = qw( rw ro );
%EXPORT_TAGS  = (  modifiers   => \@EXPORT_OK  ,
                  'read-only'  => [ qw( ro ) ] ,
                  'read-write' => [ qw( rw ) ] );

# use Storable for deep-cloning of Class::Declare objects
use Storable;

# load the dump() and hash() modules
use Class::Declare::Dump;
use Class::Declare::Hash;


=head1 MOTIVATION

One of Perl's greatest strengths is it's flexible object model. You can
turn anything (so long as it's a reference, or you can get a reference
to it) into an object. This allows coders to choose the most appropriate
implementation for each specific need, and still maintain a consistent
object oriented approach.

A common paradigm for implementing objects in Perl is to use a blessed hash
reference, where the keys of the hash represent attributes of the class. This
approach is simple, relatively quick, and trivial to extend, but it's not
very secure. Since we return a reference to the hash directly to the user
they can alter hash values without using the class's accessor methods. This
allows for coding "short-cuts" which at best reduce the maintainability
of the code, and at worst may introduce bugs and inconsistencies not
anticipated by the original module author.

On some systems, this may not be too much of a problem. If the developer
base is small, then we can trust the users of our modules to Do The Right
Thing. However, as a module's user base increases, or the complexity of
the systems our module's are embedded in grows, it may become desirable
to control what users can and can't access in our module to guarantee our
code's behaviour. A traditional method of indicating that an object's data
and methods are for internal use only is to prefix attribute and method
names with underscores. However, this still relies on the end user Doing
The Right Thing.

B provides mechanisms for module developers to explicitly
state where and how their class attributes and methods may be accessed, as
well as hiding the underlying data store of the objects to prevent unwanted
tampering with the data of the objects and classes. This provides a robust
framework for developing Perl modules consistent with more strongly-typed
object oriented languages, such as Java and C++, where classes provide
C, C, and C interfaces to object and class
data and methods.


=head1 DESCRIPTION

B allows class authors to specify public, private and
protected attributes and methods for their classes, giving them control
over how their modules may be accessed. The standard object oriented
programming concepts of I, I and I have been
implemented for both class and instance (or object) attributes and methods.

Attributes and methods belong to either the I or an I
depending on whether they may be invoked via class instances (class and
instance methods/attributes), or via classes (class methods/attributes only).

B uses the following definitions for I, I
and I:

=over 4

=item B

Public attributes and methods may be accessed by anyone from anywhere. The
term B is used by B to refer to instance attributes
and methods, while the equivalent for class attributes and methods are
given the term B attributes and methods.

=item B

Private attributes and methods may be accessed only by the class defining
them and instances of that class. The term B is used to refer
to instance methods and attributes, while the term B refers to class
attributes and methods that exhibit the same properties.

=item B

Protected attributes and methods may only be accessed by the defining
class and it's instances, and classes and objects derived from the defining
class. Protected attributes and methods are used to define the interface
for extending a given class (through normal inheritance/derivation). The
term B is used to refer to protected instance methods and
attributes, while protected class methods and attributes are referred to
as B.

B since version 0.02, protected class methods and attributes are
refered to as I, rather than I. This change was brought
about by the introduction of L and then clash
with the existing Perl threading attribute B<:shared>. The term I
has been chosen to reflect that the use of these methods and attributes
is restricted to the family of classes derived from the base class.

=back

The separation of terms for class and instance methods and attributes has
been adopted to simplify class declarations. See B below.

Class attributes are regarded as constant by B: once
declared they may not be modified. Instance attributes, on the other hand,
are specific to each object, and may be modified at run-time.

Internally, B uses hashes to represent the attributes of each
of its objects, with the hashes remaining local to B. To
the user, the objects are represented as references to scalars which
B maps to object hashes in the object accessors. This
prevents users from accessing object and class data without using the
class's accessors.

The granting of access to attributes and methods is determined by examining
the I of the invocation (the first parameter passed to the method,
usually represented by C<$self>), as well as the I of the invocation
(where was the call made and who made it, determined by examining the
L() stack). This adds an unfortunate but necessary processing
overhead for B objects for each method and attribute
access. While this overhead has been kept as low as possible, it may be
desirable to turn it off in a production environment. B
permits disabling of the access control checks on a per-module basis,
which may greatly improve the performance of an application.  Refer to
the I parameter of B below for more information.

B inherits from L, so modules derived from
B can use the standard symbol export mechanisms. See
L for more information.

=head2 Defining Classes

To define a B-derived class, a package must first C
B and inherit from it (either by adding it to the C<@ISA>
array, or through C). Then B must
be called with the new class's name as its first parameter, followed by
a list of arguments that actually defines the class. For example:

  package My::Class;

  use strict;
  use warnings;
  use base qw( Class::Declare );

  __PACKAGE__->declare( ... );

  1;

B is a class method of B and
has the following call syntax and behaviour:

=over 4

=item B [ I => I ] B<)>

B's primary task is to define the attributes of the class
and its instances. In addition, it supports options for defining object
initialisation code, friend methods and classes, and the application of
strict access checking. I may have one of the following values:

=over 4

=item I

I expects either a hash reference of attribute names and default
values, an array reference containing attribute names whose default
values will be C, or a single attribute name whose value will
default to C.  These represent the public attributes of this
class. B constructs accessor methods within the class,
with the same name as the attributes. These methods are C methods
by default (see also B below), which means that the
attributes may be assigned to, as well as being set by passing the new
value as an accessor's argument.

For example:

  package My::Class;

  use strict;
  use warnings;
  use base qw( Class::Declare );

  __PACKAGE__->declare( public => { name => 'John' } );

  1;

  my $obj = My::Class->new;
  print $obj->name . "\n";    # prints 'John'
        $obj->name = 'Fred';  # the 'name' attribute is now 'Fred'
        $obj->name( 'Mary' ); # the 'name' attribute is now 'Mary'

The default value of each attribute is assigned during the object
initialisation phase (see I and B below). Public attributes
may be set during the object creation call:

  my $obj = My::Class->new( name => 'Jane' );
  print $obj->name . "\n"; # prints 'Jane'

I attributes are instance attributes and therefore may only be
accessed through class instances, and not through the class itself.

Note that the B call for C from above could have
been written as

  __PACKAGE__->declare( public => [ qw( name ) ] );

or

  __PACKAGE__->declare( public => 'name' );

In these cases, the attribute C would have had a default value
of C.

=item I

As with I above, but the attributes are private (i.e. only accessible
from within this class). If access is attempted from outside the defining
class, then an error will be reported through B. I attributes
may not be set in the call to the constructor, and as with I
attributes, are instance attributes. See also I and I below.

=item I

As with I above, but the attributes are protected (i.e. only
accessible from within this class, and all classes that inherit from this
class).  Protected attributes are instance attributes, and they may not be
set in the call to the constructor. See also I and I below.

=item I

This declares class attributes in the same manner as I
above. I attributes are not restricted to object instances, and
may be accessed via the class directly. The accessor methods created by
B, however, are not C methods, and cannot, therefore,
be assigned to. Nor can the values be set through the accessor methods. They
behave in the same manner as values declared by C (except
they must be called as class or instance methods). I attributes
may not be set in the call to the constructor.

=item I

As with I attributes, except access to C attributes is
limited to the defining class and its objects. I attributes are
the class-equivalent of I instance attributes. See also I.

=item I

As with I attributes, except access to C attributes is
limited to the defining class and all classes that inherit from the defining
class, and their respective objects.  I attributes are the
class-equivalent of I instance attributes. See also I.

=item I

This declares the set of abstract methods provided by this class, and will
cause the generation of stub routines that die() when invoked, ensuring
derived classes define these methods.

=item I

Here you may specify classes and methods that may be granted access to the
defining classes I, I, I and I
attributes and methods. I expects either a single value, or a
reference to a list of values. These values may either be class names, or
fully-qualified method names (i.e. class and method name). When a call is
made to a private or protected method or attribute accessor, and a friend
has been declared, a check is performed to see if the caller is within a
friend package or is a friend method. If so, access is granted. Otherwise,
access is denied through a call to B.

Note that friend status may not be inherited. This is to avoid scenarios
such as the following:

  package My::Class;

  use strict;
  use warnings;
  use base qw( Class::Declare );

  __PACKAGE__->declare( ...
                        friends => 'My::Trusted::Class' );
  1;

  package My::Trusted::Class;
  ...
  1;

  package Spy::Class;

  use strict;
  use warnings;
  use base qw( My::Trusted::Class );

  sub infiltrate {
    .. do things here to My::Class objects that we shouldn't
  }

  1;


=item I

This defines the object initialisation code, which is executed as the last
phase of object creation by B. I expects a C which is
called with the first argument being the new object being created by the call
to B. The initialisation routine is expected to return a true value
to indicate success. A false value will cause B to C with an
error. The initialisation routines are invoked during object creation by
B, after default and constructor attribute values have been assigned.

If the inheritance tree of a class contains multiple I methods,
then these will be executed in reverse @ISA order to ensure the primary
base-class of the new class has the final say on object initialisation
(i.e. the class left-most in the @ISA array will have it's I routine
executed last). If a class appears multiple times in an @ISA array, either
through repetition or inheritance, then it will only be executed once,
and as early in the I execution chain as possible.

B uses a C rather than specifying a default
initialisation subroutine (e.g. C) to avoid unnecessary
pollution of class namespaces. There is generally no need for initialisation
routines to be accessible outside of B.

=item I

If I is defined, then it should contain a list (either a single value or
an array reference) of the instance attributes (public, private or protected)
that may be set in the call to the constructor B. This permits the
exposure of protected and private attributes during construction (and thus
permitting read-only protected and private attributes). I makes it
possible to do the following:

  package My::Class;

  use strict;
  use warnings;
  use base qw( Class::Declare );

  __PACKAGE__->declare(

    public  => { mypublic  => undef } ,
    private => { myprivate => undef } ,
    new     => [ qw( myprivate ) ]

  );

  1;

  ...

  my  $obj  = My::Class->new( myprivate => 1 );

Note that if I is specified in a call to B then B
those attributes listed in the value of I may be defined in the call
to the constructor B (overriding the default behaviour of allowing
public attributes). In addition, the attributes must be defined in this
class, and not inherited. This prevents unintended access such as:

  public My::Class;

  use strict;
  use warnings;
  use base qw( Class::Declare );

  __PACKAGE__->declare(

    private => { myprivate => undef }

  );

  1;

  ...

  public Bad::Class;

  use strict;
  use warnings;
  use base qw( My::Class );

  __PACKAGE__->declare(

    # this will throw an error with die()
    new => 'myprivate'

  );

  1;

=item I

If I is set to I, then B will
define B, B, B, B,
B, and B methods (see L and
L below) within the current package that enforce the
class/static/restricted/public/private/protected relationships in method
calls.

If I is set to I and defined (e.g. 0, not C),
then B will convert the above method calls to no-ops,
and no invocation checking will be performed. Note that this conversion
is performed for this class only.

By setting I to C (or omitting it from the call to
B altogether), B will not create these methods in
the current package, but will rather let them be inherited from the parent
class.  In this instance, if the parent's methods are no-ops, then the child
class will inherit no-ops. Note that the B, B, etc
methods from B enforce the public/private/etc relationships.

One possible use of this feature is as follows:

  package My::Class;

  use strict;
  use warnings;
  use base qw( Class::Declare );

  __PACKAGE__->declare( public    => ...                ,
                        private   => ...                ,
                        protected => ...                ,
                        strict    => $ENV{ USE_STRICT } );

  ...

  1;

Here, during development and testing the environment variable C
may be left undefined, or set to true to help ensure correctness of the
code, but then set to false (e.g. 0) in production to avoid the additional
computational overhead.

Setting I to I does not interfere with the B
method (see below). Turning strict access checking off simply stops the
checks from being performed and does not change the logic of whether a
class or method as been declared as a friend of a given class.

=back

B

=over 4

=item *

B may be called only once per class to prevent class redefinitions

=item *

attribute names specified in the call to B may not be the same
as class and instance methods already defined in the class

=item *

attribute names must be unique for a class

=back

If any of the above rules are violated, then B will raise an
error with B.

=cut

{ # closure for Class admin storage

  # define class declaration list storage
  #
  my  %__DECL__     = ();

  # define class initialisation storage
  #
  my  %__INIT__     = ();

  # define class default attribute storage, mapping attribute to default
  # value
  #
  my  %__DEFN__     = ();

  # define class default attribute storage, mapping attribute to type
  #
  my  %__ATTR__     = ();

  # define the attributes that may be defined in a call to new()
  #   - this overrides the use of public attributes
  my  %__NEW__      = ();

  # define class mapping of attributes to attribute types
  #
  my  %__TYPE__     = ();

  # define class friend definitions storage
  #
  my  %__FRIEND__   = ();

  # define global object storage
  #
  my  %__OBJECTS__  = (); # hash holding current object hashes

  # create a map to say which attributes are instance attributes and
  # which are class attributes
  my  %__INSTANCE__ = map { $_ => 1 } qw( public private protected );


# declare()
#
sub declare
{
  # determine the class we've been called from
  my  $class    = __PACKAGE__->class( shift );  # this should be our name
      $class    = ref( $class ) || $class;    # ... make sure it is :)

  # where were we called from
  my  ( undef , $file , $line ) = caller 0;

  # make sure this is only called once per class
  ( exists $__DECL__{ $class } )
    and die "$class redeclared at $file line $line "
            . "\n\t(original declaration at "
            . $__DECL__{ $class }->{ file } . " line "
            . $__DECL__{ $class }->{ line } . ")\n";

  # make sure we have a valid set of arguments
  my  $_args  = __PACKAGE__->arguments(
                                  \@_ => [ qw( class  static  restricted
                                               public private protected
                                               init   strict  friends
                                                      new     abstract   ) ]
                                      ); # $_args

  # ensure the init argument is undefined or is a code ref
  ( ! defined $_args->{ init } || ref( $_args->{ init } ) eq 'CODE' )
    or die "$class init failure: " . $_args->{ init }
           . " is not a CODEREF at $file line $line\n";

  # store the class initialiser reference
  my  $ref                = delete $_args->{ init };
      $__INIT__{ $class } = $ref      if ( defined $ref );

  # store the allowed attributes of new()
  my  $new                = delete $_args->{ new     };
  if ( defined $new ) {
    # make sure we have a list of values
    $new    = [ $new ]    unless ( ref $new );
    ( ref( $new ) eq 'ARRAY' )
      or die "An array reference or scalar expected for declaration "
             . "of 'new' attributes at $file line $line\n";
  }

  # have we been told of friends of this class?
  my  $friends            = delete $_args->{ friends };
  if ( defined $friends ) {
    # make sure we have a list of values
    $friends  = [ $friends ]    unless ( ref $friends );
    ( ref( $friends ) eq 'ARRAY' )
      or die "An array reference or scalar expected for declaration "
             . "of friend methods and classes at $file line $line\n";

    # now create the friends lookup table for this class
    $__FRIEND__{ $class } = { map { $_ => undef } @{ $friends } };
  }

  # are we required to perform strict type checking, or not, or are
  # they just not bothered?
  my  $strict             = delete $_args->{ strict };
  if ( defined $strict ) {
    # if the class requires strict relationship checking, then
    # insert reference to the standard Class::Declare public(),
    # private(), protected() and class() methods into the new
    # class's symbol table, otherwise, just ad no-ops.
    foreach ( grep { $_ ne 'abstract' } keys %{ $_args } ) {
      no strict 'refs';

      my  $glob   = join '::' , $class , $_;
       *{ $glob } = ( $strict ) ? *{ join '::' , __PACKAGE__ , $_ }
                                : sub { $_[ 1 ] };
    }

  }
  # if there's no explicit definition of the public(), private(), etc
  # methods, so this class will just inherit from its parents

  # make sure the arguments are understandable
  #   i.e. we either have a hash reference, an array reference or a scalar
  #   (non-reference) value for the value of each type of attribute (so that
  #   we can simplify the specification of attributes)
  foreach my $type ( keys %{ $_args } ) {
    my  $ref  = $_args->{ $type };

    # ignore this type of attribute if none have been declared
    next    unless ( defined $ref );

    # if we have a hash reference, then ignore this type of attribute
    next    if ( ref( $ref ) && ref( $ref ) eq 'HASH' );

    # if we don't have a reference, then we can assume that we have simply
    # been given the attribute name and should therefore default the
    # attribute to undef
      $ref  = { $ref => undef }   unless ( ref $ref );
    # if we have an array reference rather than a hash reference, then
    # convert this into a hash with undef default attribute values
      $ref  = { map { $_ => undef } @{ $ref } }   if ( ref $ref eq 'ARRAY' );

    # must make sure we have a hash reference (at this stage)
    ( ref( $ref ) eq 'HASH' )
      or die "Scalar, array reference, or hash reference expected "
             . "for declaration of $type attributes at $file line "
             . "$line\n";

    # make sure the arguments hash is updated with the new reference
      $_args->{ $type } = $ref;
  }

  # make sure there are no duplicate attribute names
  {
    local %_;

    # examine each type of attribute
    TYPE: foreach my $type ( keys %{ $_args } ) {
      my  $ref  = $_args->{ $type };

      # if there are no attributes of this type, then skip
      next TYPE   unless ( defined $ref );

      # make sure we don't have doubling up
      foreach my $attr ( keys %{ $ref } ) {
        ( exists $_{ $attr } )
          and die "$class attribute $attr redefined as $type "
                  . " at $file line $line"
                  . "\n\t(also defined as "
                  . $_{ $attr }->{ type } . " at "
                  . $_{ $attr }->{ file } . " line "
                  . $_{ $attr }->{ line } . ")\n";

        # store where this attribute was defined
        $_{ $attr } = { type => $type ,
                        file => $file ,
                        line => $line };
      }
    }

    # if 'new' was defined in declare() then ensure we have only instance
    # attributes defined
    if ( defined $new ) {
      # ensure that the attributes defined in the 'new' attribute are known
      my  @unknown  = grep { ! exists $_{ $_ } } @{ $new };
        ( @unknown )
            and die "Unknown attribute" . ( ( @unknown == 1 ) ? '' : 's' )
                  . " '" . join( "', '" , @unknown ) . "' in declaration "
                  . "of 'new' at $file line $line\n";
      # ensure the defined attributes are instance attributes
      my  @class    = grep { ! $__INSTANCE__{ $_{ $_ }->{ type } } }
                           @{ $new };
        ( @class )
            and die "Non-instance attribute" . ( ( @class == 1 ) ? '' : 's' )
                  . " '" . join( "', '" , @class ) . "' in declaraion "
                  . "of 'new' at $file line $line\n";

      # having made it here, we can set the $__NEW__ entry for this class
      $__NEW__{ $class }  = $new;
    }
  }

  # create the required attribute accessor methods
  TYPE: foreach my $type ( keys %{ $_args } ) {
    my  $ref  = $_args->{ $type };

    # if there are no types of these routines, then don't proceed
    next TYPE   unless ( defined $ref );

    # create all of the attribute accessor methods for this package
    CREATE: foreach ( $type ) {
      # class or abstract attribute
      ( ! $__INSTANCE__{ $_ } ) && do {
        METHOD: foreach my $method ( keys %{ $ref } ) {
          # firstly, make sure this class doesn't already have a
          # method of this name defined
          ( $class->has( $method ) )
            and die "Attempt to redeclare method $method in "
                    . "class $class as a $type method at $file "
                    . "line $line\n";

          # now, make sure Class::Declare doesn't already have
          # a method of this name defined
          ( __PACKAGE__->has( $method ) )
            and die "Attempt to override " . __PACKAGE__
                    . "::$method() in class $class as a "
                    . "$type method at $file line $line\n";

          # OK, this method doesn't exist elsewhere, so we can
          # continue
          {
            no strict 'refs';

            # generate the glob name
            my  $glob   = join '::' , $class , $method;
            my  $value  = $ref->{ $method };
            # by default class attributes are read-only
            my  $write  = undef;

            # if we have an abstract method, then there's no value to
            # consider
            /^abstract$/  && do {
              *{ $glob }  = sub { $class->$type( shift , $glob ) };
              next METHOD;
            };

            # do we have a Class::Declare::Read object?
            if (    ref( $value )
                 &&      $value =~ m#=#o
                 &&      $value->isa( 'Class::Declare::Read' ) ) {
              # then we need to extract the actual attribute
              # value and determine if it is read-write
                                  $write  = $value->write;
              # make sure we store the value, and not the the
              # wrapper Class::Declare::Read object beyond this
              # point
              $ref->{ $method } = $value  = $value->value;
            }

            # should we create a read-only or a read-write
            # accessor?
            *{ $glob }  = ( $write ) ?
                              # the accessor should be read-write
                              sub : lvalue method {
                                $class->$type( shift , $glob );

                                $value  = shift   if ( @_ );
                                $value;
                              } :
                              # the accessor should be read only
                              sub :       method {
                                $class->$type( $_[ 0 ] , $glob );

                                return $value;
                              }; # new class/static/restricted method
          }
        }

        last CREATE;
      };

      # otherwise we're creating public, protected and private
      # methods
      foreach my $method ( keys %{ $ref } ) {
        # need to make sure this class doesn't have a method of this
        # name already
        ( $class->has( $method ) )
          and die "Attempt to redeclare method $method in "
                  . "class $class as a $type method at $file "
                  . "line $line\n";

        # now, make sure Class::Declare doesn't already have
        # a method of this name defined
        ( __PACKAGE__->has( $method ) )
          and die "Attempt to override " . __PACKAGE__
                  . "::$method() in class $class as a "
                  . "$type method at $file line $line\n";

        # OK, this method doesn't exist already, so we can continue
        {
          no strict 'refs';

          # generate the glob name
          my  $glob = join '::' , $class , $method;
          my  $value  = $ref->{ $method };
          # by default instance attributes are read-write
          my  $write  = 1;

          # do we have a Class::Declare::Read object?
          if (    ref( $value )
               &&      $value =~ m#=#o
               &&      $value->isa( 'Class::Declare::Read' ) ) {
            # then we need to extract the actual attribute
            # value and determine if it is read-write
            $write        = $value->write;
            # have to store the attribute value back into the
            # original hash
            $ref->{ $method } = $value->value;
          }

          # should we create a read-write or a read-only accessor?
          *{ $glob }  = ( $write ) ?
            # the accessor should be read-write
            sub : lvalue method {
              my  $self = $class->$type( shift , $glob );

              my  $hash;
              # make sure we have a valid object
              ( ref( $self )
                and $hash = $__OBJECTS__{ ${ $self } } )
                 or do {
                  my  ( undef , $file , $line ) = caller 0;
                  die "$self is not a $class object at $file line $line\n";
                };

              # set the value if required and return
                $hash->{ $method }  = shift   if ( @_ );
                $hash->{ $method };
            } :
            # the accessor should be read-only
            sub : method {
              my  $self = $class->$type( $_[ 0 ] , $glob );

              my  $hash;
              # make sure we have a valid object
              ( ref( $self )
                and $hash = $__OBJECTS__{ ${ $self } } )
                 or do {
                  my  ( undef , $file , $line ) = caller 0;
                  die "$self is not a $class object at $file line $line\n";
                };

              # return the required value
              return $hash->{ $method };
            }; # new public/private/protected method
        }
      }

    } # end of CREATE

  } # end of TYPE

  # OK, this is a new definition, so record the relevant details
  $__DECL__{ $class } = { file => $file , line => $line };
  $__DEFN__{ $class } = { map { %{ $_ } }
                              grep { defined }
                                   values %{ $_args } };

  # keep a record of the attributes of this class, making note of the type
  # of each attribute as well
  $__TYPE__{ $class } = {};
  foreach my $type ( qw( class  static  restricted
                         public private protected
                                        abstract   ) ) {
    # do we have attributes of this type for this class?
    if ( my @attr = keys %{ $_args->{ $type } } ) {
      $__ATTR__{ $class }->{ $type }  = \@attr;
      $__TYPE__{ $class }->{ $_    }  =  $type  foreach ( @attr );

    # if not, store an empty list
    } else {
      $__ATTR__{ $class }->{ $type }  = [];
    }
  }

  # if this class is derived from Class::Declare::Attributes then attempt to
  # call Class::Declare::Attributes::__init__()
  my  $cda  = __PACKAGE__ . '::Attributes';
  if ( UNIVERSAL::isa( $class => $cda ) ) {
      my  $ref  = UNIVERSAL::can( $cda => '__init__' );
          $ref->( $class )          if ( defined $ref );
  }

  1;  # everything is OK
} # declare()


=back

=head2 Creating Objects

Once a B-derived class has been declared, instances
of that class may be created through the B method supplied by
B. B may be called either as a class or an instance
method. If called as a class method, a new instance will be created,
using the class's default attribute values as the default values for this
instance. If B is called as an instance method, the default attribute
values for the new instance will be taken from the invoking instance. This
may be used to clone B-derived objects.

B has the following call syntax and behaviour:

=over 4

=item B [ I => I ] B<)>

B creates instances of B objects. If a problem
occurs during the creation of an object, such as the failure of an object
initialisation routine, then B will raise an error through B.

When called as a class method, B will create new instances of the
specified class, using the class's default attribute values. If it's called
as an instance method, then B will clone the invoking object.

B accepts named parameters as arguments, where I corresponds
to a I attribute of the class of the object being created. If an
unknown attribute name, or a non-I attribute name is specified, then
B will B with an error. Public attribute values specified
in the call to B are assigned after the creation of the object,
to permit over-riding of default values (either class-default attributes
or attributes cloned from the invoking object).

B can be extended to accept non-public instance attributes as
parameters through the specification of the I attribute of B
(see above). In this instance, only the attributes listed in the definition
of I in B will be accepted, and all public attributes will
only be accepted if contained within this list.

If the calling class, or any of its base classes, has an object
initialisation routine defined (specified by the I parameter of
B), then these routines will be invoked in reverse C<@ISA> order,
once the object's attribute values have been set. An initialisation routine
may only be called once per class per object, so if a class appears multiple
times in the C<@ISA> array of the new object's class, then the base class's
initialisation routine will be called as early in the initialisation chain
as possible, and only once (i.e. as a result of the right-most occurrence
of the base class in the C<@ISA> array).

The initialisation routines should return a true value to indicate
success. If any of the routines fail (i.e. return a false value), then
B will B with an error.

=back

When a new instance is created, instance attributes (i.e. I,
I and I attributes) are cloned, so that the new instance
has a copy of the default values. For values that are not references, this
amounts to simply copying the value through assignment. For values that
are references, B is used to ensure each instance has
it's own copy of the references data structure (the structures are local
to each instance).

However, if an instance attribute value is a C, then B simply
copies the reference to the new object, since Cs cannot be cloned.

Class attributes are not cloned as they are assumed to be constant across
all object instances.

=cut
sub new : method
{
  my  $self   = __PACKAGE__->class( shift );
  my  $class  = ref( $self ) || $self;

  # generate the combined @ISA array for this class
  my  @isa  = ( $class );
  my  $i    = 0;
  while ( $i <= $#isa ) {
    no strict 'refs';

    my  $pkg  = $isa[ $i++ ]  or next;
    push @isa , @{ $pkg . '::ISA' };
  }
  # remove the duplicates and reverse
    @isa  = local %_ || grep { ! $_{ $_ }++ } reverse @isa;

  # initialise the hash reference for this object instance
  #   - use Storable::dclone here to ensure that each object has
  #     a copy of the default values of the attributes, regardless
  #     of the structure
  #   - CODEREFs are not copied
  #   NB: when using Storable::dclone we need to make sure that we
  #       only clone each reference once, so if multiple entries
  #       refer to the same structure, then the copy of the hash will show
  #       those entries pointing to the same structure
  my  %hash;  undef %hash;
  {
    # create a lookup table of all stored references
    my  %memory;  undef %memory;

    # for each class, extract the attribute definition array
    ISA: foreach my $isa ( @isa ) {
      # only worry about Class::Declare classes
      next ISA    unless ( exists $__DECL__{ $isa } );

      # extract the definition hash for this class
      #   this contains the default values for the class and object
      #   attributes
      # however, if we've been called as an instance method, then we
      #   should use the calling object's instance hash (stored in
      #   %__OBJECTS__) for the default values
      # have we been called as an instance method?
      #   - extract the instance hash
      #   - otherwise, use the class's default hash (ignore this class
      #       if there is no default hash)
      my  $defn = ref( $self ) ? $__OBJECTS__{ ${ $self } }
                               : $__DEFN__{ $isa };

      # split the typemap hash into key/value pairs
      #    - the typemap hash maps attributes to their types
      #        e.g. public, private, protected, etc
      while ( my ( $key , $type ) = each %{ $__TYPE__{ $isa } } ) {
        # extract the value for this attribute
        my  $value  = $defn->{ $key };

        # if this is an instance attribute and it has a reference
        # value then we should clone the attribute value so that
        # each instance has a copy of the original structure
        my  $vtype  = ref( $value );
        if ( $vtype && $vtype ne 'CODE' && $__INSTANCE__{ $type } ) {
          # OK, we need to keep track of the references we
          # clone, so that if we see the same reference more
          # than once we only clone it a single time

          # clone this reference if we haven't seen it before
          $value    = $memory{ $value }
                  ||= Storable::dclone( $value );
        }

        # store the key/value pair
          $hash{ $key } = $value;
      }
    }
  }

  # create an anonymous hash reference for this object
  my    $ref                  = \%hash;
  my  ( $key )                =  ( $ref =~ m#0x([a-f\d]+)#o );
        $__OBJECTS__{ $key }  = $ref;

  # create the new object (applying the index offset)
  my  $obj   = bless \$key => $class;

  # if there were any arguments passed, then these will be used to
  # set the parameters for this object
  # NB: - only public attributes may be set this way
  #     - need to examine every class in the @ISA hierarchy
  #     - may override 'public attributes' with 'new' list in declare()
  my  $default  = sub {
                    ( defined $__NEW__{ $_[0] } )
                         ? @{ $__NEW__{ $_[0] } }
                         : map { @{ $_ } }
                               grep { defined }
                                    map { $_->{ public } }
                                        grep { defined }
                                             ( $__ATTR__{ $_ } )
                  }; # $default()
  my  %default  = map { $_ => $hash{ $_ } }
                      map { $default->( $_ ) } @isa;
  my  %args     = eval { __PACKAGE__->arguments( \@_ => \%default ) };

  # if there has been an error, then augment the error string
  # with a new() specific explanation
  #    NB: have to adjust the original error string to show the
  #        source of the original error
  if ( $@ ) {
    my  ( undef , $file , $line , $sub )  = caller 0;

    # rather than report this base class, make sure the
    # subroutine is a method of the calling class
    my  $pkg  = __PACKAGE__;
        $sub  =~ s#$pkg#$class#g;

    # augment the error message
    my  $msg  = $@;
        $msg  =~ s#\S+ at #$sub() at #;
        $msg  =~ s#at \S+ line \d+#at $file line $line#;

    # add the additional explanation to the message
    die $msg . "\t(only public attributes may be set during "
             . "object creation)\n";
  }

  # otherwise, set the default attributes for this object
    $hash{ $_ } = $args{ $_ }   foreach ( keys %args );

  # execute the initialisation routines
  foreach my $pkg ( grep { exists $__INIT__{ $_ } } @isa ) {
    # make sure the initialisation succeeds
    $__INIT__{ $pkg }->( $obj )
      or do {
        my  ( undef , $file , $line ) = caller 0;

        die "Initialisation of $class object failed at "
            . "$file line $line\n\t($pkg initialisation)\n";
      };
  }

  # return the object
  return $obj;
} # new()


=head2 Class Access Control Methods

B provides the following class methods for implementing
I, I and I access control in class methods. These
methods may be called either through a B-derived class,
or an instance of such a class.

Note that a I method is a I class method, a I method
is a I class method, and a I method is a I
class method.


=over 4

=item B I B<)>

Ensure a method is implemented, but throwing a fatal error (i.e. die()'ing
if called).

=cut
sub abstract : method
{
  my  ( undef , $file , $line , $sub )  = caller 1;
                                $sub    = $_[ 2 ] || $sub;

  die "Abstract method $sub() called at $file line $line\n";
} # abstract()


=item B I B<)>

Ensure a method is called as a class method of this package via the I.

  sub myclasssub {
    my $self = __PACKAGE__->class( shift );
    ...
  }

A I method may be called from anywhere, and I must inherit
from this class (either an object or instance). If B is not invoked
in this manner, then B will B with an error.

See also the I parameter for B above.

=cut
sub class : method
{
  # has this method been called as a class or object method?
  return $_[ 1 ]    if ( defined $_[ 1 ] && $_[ 1 ]->isa( $_[ 0 ] ) );

  # determine where we (i.e. the method containing class()) was called from
  my  ( undef , $file , $line , $sub )  = caller 1;
                                $sub    =     $_[ 2 ] || $sub;
  my    $class                          = ref $_[ 0 ] || $_[ 0 ];
  die "$_[ 1 ] is not a $class class or object in call to $sub() "
      . "at $file line $line\n";
} # class()


=item B I B<)>

Ensure a method is called as a static method of this package via I.

  sub mystaticsub {
    my $self = __PACKAGE__->static( shift );
    ...
  }

A I method may only be called from within the defining class,
and I must inherit from this class (either an object or instance).
If B is not invoked in this manner, then B will B
with an error.

See also the I and I parameters for B above.

=cut
sub static : method
{
  # extract the caller context
  my  ( $pkg , $file , $line , $sub )   = caller 1;
  my    $class                          = ref $_[ 0 ] || $_[ 0 ];

  # at the very least we must have a reference
  if ( defined $_[ 1 ] ) {
    # has this method been called as a static method?
    return $_[ 1 ]  if (    $_[ 1 ]->isa( $class )
                         &&       $pkg eq $class   );

    # has this method been called from within a parent class?
    return $_[ 1 ]  if (     $class->isa( $pkg   ) );

    # have to go back on more depth in the caller stack to obtain
    # the name of the method in which this call was made
    my  ( undef , undef , undef , $caller ) = caller 2;
    # is the caller a friend of this class?
    if ( my $ref = $__FRIEND__{ $class } ) {
      return $_[ 1 ]    if (    exists $ref->{ $pkg    }
                             || exists $ref->{ $caller } );
    }
  }

  # someone's trying to be naughty: time to tell them about it
  #   - the subroutine name may be passed in to ensure the correct
  #     glob is reported by the dynamically instantiated methods
  #     created by declare()
      $sub                = $_[ 2 ] || $sub;
  die "cannot call static method $sub() from outside "
      . "$class or parent ($pkg) at $file line $line\n";
} # static()


=item B I B<)>

Ensure a method is called as a restricted method of this package via
I.

  sub myrestrictedsub {
    my $self = __PACKAGE__->restricted( shift );
    ...
  }

A I method may only be called from within the defining class or
a class that inherits from the defining class, and I must inherit
from this class (either an object or instance).  If B is
not invoked in this manner, then B will B with an error.

See also the I and I parameters for B above.

B B was called B in the first release of
B. However, with the advent of L,
there was a clash between the use of B<:shared> as an attribute by
L, and the Perl use of B<:shared> attributes
for threading.

=cut
sub restricted : method
{
  # extract the caller context
  my  ( $pkg , $file , $line , $sub )   = caller 1;
  my    $class                          = ref $_[ 0 ] || $_[ 0 ];

  # at the very least we must have a reference
  if ( defined $_[ 1 ] ) {
    # has this method been called as a private method?
    return $_[ 1 ]  if (    $_[ 1 ]->isa( $_[ 0 ] )
                         &&    $pkg->isa( $_[ 0 ] ) );

    # has this method been called from within a parent class?
    return $_[ 1 ]  if (     $class->isa( $pkg   ) );

    # have to go back on more depth in the caller stack to obtain
    # the name of the method in which this call was made
    my  ( undef , undef , undef , $caller ) = caller 2;

    # is the caller a friend of this class?
    if ( my $ref = $__FRIEND__{ $class } ) {
      return $_[ 1 ]    if (    exists $ref->{ $pkg    }
                             || exists $ref->{ $caller } );
    }
  }

  # someone's trying to be naughty: time to tell them about it
  #   - the subroutine name may be passed in to ensure the correct
  #     glob is reported by the dynamically instantiated methods
  #     created by declare()
      $sub                = $_[ 2 ] || $sub;
  die "cannot call restricted method $sub() from outside $class "
      . "sub-class or parent ($pkg) at $file line $line\n";
} # restricted()


# NB: restricted() used to be shared(), so let's put a stub in place to show
#     the deprecation of shared()
sub shared : method
{
  # determine where we were called from
  my  ( undef , $file , $line )   = caller 0;

  # show that shared() is no longer supported and die
  die __PACKAGE__ . '::shared() has been deprecated - see ' .
      __PACKAGE__ . "::restricted() instead (at $file line $line)\n";
} # shared()


=back

=head2 Instance Access Control Methods

B provides the following instance methods for implementing
I, I and I access control in instance methods.
These methods may only be called through a B-derived
instance.

=over 4

=item B I B<)>

Ensure a method is called as a public method of this class via I.

  sub mypublicsub {
    my $self = __PACKAGE__->public( shift );
    ...
  }

A I method may be called from anywhere, and I must be an
object that inherits from this class. If B is not invoked in
this manner, then B will B with an error.

See also the I parameter for B above.

=cut
sub public : method
{
  # has this method been called as a public method?
  return $_[ 1 ]    if ( defined $_[ 1 ] && ref $_[ 1 ]
                                         &&     $_[ 1 ]->isa( $_[ 0 ] ) );

  # determine where we (i.e. the method containing public())
  # was called from
  my  ( undef , $file , $line , $sub )  = caller 1;
  my    $class                          = ref $_[ 0 ] || $_[ 0 ];
        $sub                            =     $_[ 2 ] || $sub;
  die "$_[ 1 ] is not a $class object in call to $sub() "
      . "at $file line $line\n";
} # public()


=item B I B<)>

Ensure a method is called as a private method of this class via I.

  sub myprivatesub {
    my $self = __PACKAGE__->private( shift );
    ...
  }

A I method may only be called from within the defining class, and
I must be an instance that inherits from this class. If B
is not invoked in this manner, then B will B with an error.

See also the I and I parameters for B above.

=cut
sub private : method
{
  # extract the caller context
  my  ( $pkg , $file , $line , $sub )   = caller 1;
  my    $class                          = ref $_[ 0 ] || $_[ 0 ];

  # at the very least we must have a reference
  if ( defined $_[ 1 ] && ref $_[ 1 ] ) {
    # has this method been called as a private method?
    return $_[ 1 ]  if (    $_[ 1 ]->isa( $class )
                         &&       $pkg eq $class   );

    # has this method been called from within a parent class?
    return $_[ 1 ]  if (     $class->isa( $pkg   ) );

    # have to go back on more depth in the caller stack to obtain
    # the name of the method in which this call was made
    my  ( undef , undef , undef , $caller ) = caller 2;
    # is the caller a friend of this class?
    if ( my $ref = $__FRIEND__{ $class } ) {
      return $_[ 1 ]    if (    exists $ref->{ $pkg    }
                             || exists $ref->{ $caller } );
    }
  }

  # someone's trying to be naughty: time to tell them about it
  #   - the subroutine name may be passed in to ensure the correct
  #     glob is reported by the dynamically instantiated methods
  #     created by declare()
      $sub                = $_[ 2 ] || $sub;
  die "cannot call private method $sub() from outside "
      . "$class or parent ($pkg) at $file line $line\n";
} # private()


=item B I B<)>

Ensure a method is called as a protected method of this class via I.

  sub myprotectedsub {
    my $self = __PACKAGE__->protected( shift );
    ...
  }

A I method may only be called from within the defining class or
a class that inherits from the defining class, and I must be an
instance that inherits from this class. If B is not invoked
in this manner, then B will B with an error.

See also the I and I parameters for B above.

=cut
sub protected : method
{
  # extract the caller context
  my  ( $pkg , $file , $line , $sub )   = caller 1;
  my    $class                          = ref $_[ 0 ] || $_[ 0 ];

  # at the very least we must have a reference
  if ( defined $_[ 1 ] && ref $_[ 1 ] ) {
    # has this method been called as a private method?
    return $_[ 1 ]  if (    $_[ 1 ]->isa( $_[ 0 ] )
                         &&    $pkg->isa( $_[ 0 ] ) );

    # has this method been called from within a parent class?
    return $_[ 1 ]  if (     $class->isa( $pkg   ) );

    # have to go back on more depth in the caller stack to obtain
    # the name of the method in which this call was made
    my  ( undef , undef , undef , $caller ) = caller 2;

    # is the caller a friend of this class?
    if ( my $ref = $__FRIEND__{ $class } ) {
      return $_[ 1 ]    if (    exists $ref->{ $pkg    }
                             || exists $ref->{ $caller } );
    }
  }

  # someone's trying to be naughty: time to tell them about it
  #   - the subroutine name may be passed in to ensure the correct
  #     glob is reported by the dynamically instantiated methods
  #     created by declare()
      $sub                = $_[ 2 ] || $sub;
  die "cannot call protected method $sub() from outside $class "
      . "sub-class or parent ($pkg) at $file line $line\n";
} # protected()


=back

=head2 Destroying Objects

Object destruction is handled via the normal Perl C
method. B implements a C method that performs
clean-up and house keeping, so it is important that any class derived from
B that requires a C method ensures that it invokes
it's parent's C method, using a paradigm similar to the following:

  sub DESTROY
  {
    my $self = __PACKAGE__->public( shift );

    ... do local clean-up here ..

    # call the parent clean-up
       $self->SUPER::DESTROY( @_ );
  } # DESTROY()


=cut

# DESTROY()
#
# Free object hash references.
sub DESTROY
{
  my  $self = __PACKAGE__->public( shift );

  # delete the hash holding this object's data
  delete $__OBJECTS__{ ${ $self } };
} # DESTROY()


=head2 Attribute Modifiers

By default B class attributes (C, C, and
C) are I, while instance attributes (C,
C, and C) are I. B provides
two attribute modifiers, B and B for changing this behaviour,
allowing class attributes to be read-write, and instance attributes to be
read only.

The modifiers may be imported separately,

  use Class::Declare qw( :read-only  );

or

  use Class::Declare qw( ro );

or

  use Class::Declare qw( :read-write );

or

  use Class::Declare qw( rw );

or collectively, using the C<:modifiers> tag.

  use Class::Declare qw( :modifiers );

To use the modifiers, they must be incorporated into the attribute definition
for the class. For example:

  package My::Class;

  use strict;
  use Class::Declare qw( :modifiers );
  use vars           qw( @ISA );
      @ISA = qw( Class::Declare );

  __PACKAGE__->declare( class  => { my_class  => rw undef } ,
                        public => { my_public => ro 1234  } );

Here, the attribute C has been declared I by B,
permitting it's value to be changed at run time. The public attribute
C has been declared I by B, preventing it from
being changed once set. Please note that although they may be marked as
I, public attributes may still be set during object creation
(i.e. in the call to B). However, once set, the value may not
be changed.

=over 4

=item B

Declare a class attribute to be I, instead of defaulting to
read-only. Note that this has no effect on instance attributes as they
are read-write by default.


=item B

Declare an instance attribute to be I, instead of defaulting to
read-write. Note that this has no effect on class attributes as they are
read-only by default.

=back

=cut

{ # closure for declaring the Read::Write and Read::Only classes

  {
  # declare a base Read class
  package Class::Declare::Read;

  use strict;
  use base qw( Class::Declare );

  __PACKAGE__->declare( public => { value => undef } );

  1;


  # declare the Read::Only class
  package Class::Declare::Read::Only;

  use strict;
  use base qw( Class::Declare::Read );

  __PACKAGE__->declare( class => { write => undef } );

  1;


  # declare the Read::Write class
  package Class::Declare::Read::Write;

  use strict;
  use base qw( Class::Declare::Read );

  __PACKAGE__->declare( class => { write => 1     } );

  1;
  }

# make the given scalar as read-write
sub rw ($)
{
  return Class::Declare::Read::Write->new( value => shift );
} # rw()

# mark the given scalar as read-only
sub ro ($)
{
  return  Class::Declare::Read::Only->new( value => shift );
} # ro()

} # end of Read::Write and Read::Only closure


=head2 Serialising Objects

B objects may be serialised (and therefore cloned) by using
L. B uses B itself during
object creation to copy instance attribute values. However, L
is unable to serialise Cs, and attempts to do so will fail. This
causes the failure of serialisation of B objects that have
Cs as attribute values. However, for cloning, B
avoids this problem by simply copying Cs from the original object
to the clone.

=cut
{ # closure for freezing/thawing CODEREFs

  # Storable is unable to freeze/thaw CODEREFs, so here we provide
  # in-memory storage for CODEREFs to create the illusion of being able to
  # handle CODEREFs. This is used to ensure Storable::dclone() works, but
  # is not guaranteed to work for all freeze/thaw combinations (otherwise
  # Storable would have done this a lot sooner), so is disabled for
  # non-cloning invocations.
  my  %__CODEREFS__;  undef %__CODEREFS__;

#
# STORABLE_freeze()
#
# Hook for Storable to freeze Class objects.
sub STORABLE_freeze
{
  my  $self     = __PACKAGE__->public( shift );
  my  $cloning  = shift;

  # make sure we're storing
  Storable::is_storing
    or do {
      my  ( undef , $file , $line , $sub )  = caller 0;

      die "Unexpected call to " . __PACKAGE__ . "::$sub() "
          . "at $file line $line\n";
    };

  #
  # serialise the object
  #

  # we want to freeze the actual %__OBJECTS__ key and the data hash
  my  $key    = ${ $self };

  # extract the object hash
  my  $hash   = $__OBJECTS__{ $key };

  # if we're cloning, then we may have to play with attributes that have
  # CODEREFs as values
  my  $code;    undef $code;
  if ( $cloning ) {

    # if any of the attributes are CODEREFs then store them in %__CODEREFS__
    # and replace their values with a key to the %__CODEREFS__ hash
    #   - a list of attributes with stored CODEREFs is then serialised in
    #       addition to the rest of the object

    # because we may be playing around with the stored CODEREFs we should
    # clone $hash first (not a deep clone, just to the first level)
      $hash   = { %{ $hash } };

    # now, we need to look for CODEREFs and store them in memory
    ATTRIBUTE: foreach ( keys %{ $hash } ) {
      my  $value  = $hash->{ $_ };

      # only interested in CODEREFs
      next ATTRIBUTE    unless (    ref( $value )
                                 && ref( $value ) eq 'CODE' );

      # now store the coderef in %__CODEREFS__: use the package, attribute
      # and CODEREF itself as the key
      my  $ref                  = join '=' , ref( $self ) , $_
                                           , $value       , $key;
          $__CODEREFS__{ $ref } = $value;

      # replace the original CODEREF with the key
        $hash->{ $_ }     = $ref;
      # make note of the fact that this attribute has had it's value
      # stashed in the CODEREFs storage
        push @{ $code } , $_;
    }
  }

  # return the object hash to serialise as well as the list of attributes
  # whose values are CODEREFs and who have had these CODEREFs "serialised"
  # in memory - we don't worry about the object key since we need to
  # ensure the key is unique at all times, so we'll generate a new one
  # when we thaw out the object
  #   NB: we prefix the return value with '' since the first return value
  #       is expected to be serialized already. we could send back the
  #       object key (index into %__OBJECTS__) but as we have no need for
  #       it when we thaw we minimize the freezing computations by sending
  #       an empty string, rather than the key
  return ( defined $code ) ? ( '' , $hash , $code ) : ( '' , $hash );
} # STORABLE_freeze()


# STORABLE_thaw()
#
# Hook for Storable to thaw Class objects.
#   - if possible, the same object index will be used for the
#     recreated object
#   - if the index is currently occupied, then the next available
#     index will be taken.
sub STORABLE_thaw
{
  my  $self     = __PACKAGE__->public( shift );
  my  $cloning  = shift;

  # make sure we're thawing
  Storable::is_retrieving
    or do {
      my  ( undef , $file , $line , $sub )  = caller 0;

      die "Unexpected call to " . __PACKAGE__ . "::$sub() "
          . "at $file line $line\n";
    };

  # OK, @ref should contain a reference to a hash representing the object
  # as well as a reference to an array of attributes whose values are
  # CODEREFs, and are therefore contained in the %__CODEREFS__ hash
  my  ( undef , $hash , $code ) = @_;
  ( ref $hash eq 'HASH' )
    or do {
      my  ( undef , $file , $line , $sub )  = caller 0;

      die "Corrupt call to " . __PACKAGE__ . "::$sub() "
          . "at $file line $line\n"
          . "\t(HASH reference expected, got $hash)\n";
    };

  # generate the new object key from the address of the object hash
  my  ( $key )  = ( $hash =~ m#0x([a-f\d]+)#o );

  # if we have code references stored in memory and we're cloning,
  # then attempt to retrieve them
  if ( $cloning && defined $code ) {
    foreach ( @{ $code } ) {
      # extract the reference (delete it so that it doesn't consume
      # space ... i.e. a possible memory leak)
      $hash->{ $_ }   = delete $__CODEREFS__{ $hash->{ $_ } };
    }
  }

  # now we can store the object and recreate it
    $__OBJECTS__{ $key }  = $hash;
    ${ $self }            = $key;

  return $self; # that's all folks
} # STORABLE_thaw()

} # end of CODEREFs storage closure


=head2 Miscellaneous Methods

The following methods are class methods of B provided to
simplify the creation of classes. They are provided as convenience
methods, and may be called as either class or instance methods.

=over 4

=item BB<)>

Returns I if the calling class or method is a friend of the given
class or object. That is, for a given object or class, B will
return I if it is called within the context of a class or method
that has been granted friend status by the object or class (see I
in B above). A friend may access I, I,
I and I methods and attributes of a class and it's
instances, but not of derived classes.

B will return true for a given class or object if called within
that class. That is, a class is always it's own friend.

In all other circumstances, B will return I.

  package Class::A;

  my $object = Class::B;

  sub somesub {
    ...
    $object->private_method   if ( $object->friend );
    ...
  }

=cut
sub friend : method
{
  # firstly, this is a class method
  my  $self = __PACKAGE__->class( shift );
  # extract our class name
      $self = ref( $self ) || $self;

  # extract the calling class and method
  # NB: the calling method is in the call stack before the current
  #     one (i.e. caller 1 not caller 0)
  my  $class  =   caller;
  my  $method = ( caller 1 )[ 3 ];

  # you should always be a friend to yourself
  return 1      if ( $class eq $self );

  # otherwise, extract the friend declarations for this class
  my  $friend = $__FRIEND__{ $self };
  # if there's no friend information, then the answer is no
  return undef    unless ( defined $friend );

  # return true only if the class or the method is recorded as a friend
  return (    defined $class  && exists( $friend->{ $class  } )
           || defined $method && exists( $friend->{ $method } ) );
} # friend()


=item B [ I => I ] B<)>

Generate a textual representation of an object or class. Since
B objects are represented as references to
scalars, L is unable to generate a meaningful dump of
B-derived objects. B pretty-prints objects,
showing their attributes and their values. B obeys the access
control imposed by B on it's objects and classes, limiting
it's output to attributes a caller has been granted access to see or use.

B will always observe the access control mechanisms as specified
by B, B, etc, and it's
behaviour is not altered by the setting of I in B to be
I (see B above). This is because I is designed
as a mechanism to accelerate the execution of B-derived
modules, not circumvent the intended access restrictions of those modules.

B accepts the following optional named parameters:

=over 4

=item I

If I is true (the default value), and none of the attribute/method type
parameters (e.g. I, I, etc) have been set, then B
will display all attributes the caller has access to. If any of the attribute
type parameters have been set to true, then I will be ignored, and only
those attribute types specified in the call to B will be displayed.

=item I

If I is true, then B will display only I attributes of
the invocant and their values, and all other types of attributes explicitly
requested in the call to B (the I parameter is ignored). If the
caller doesn't have access to I methods, then B will B
with an error. If no class attributes exist, and no other attributes have
been requested then C is returned.

=item I

As with I, but displaying I attributes and their values.

=item I

As with I, but displaying I attributes and their values.

=item I

As with I, but displaying I attributes and their
values. Note that I attributes can only be displayed for class
instances. Requesting the B of public attributes of a class will
result in B Bing with an error.

=item I

As with I, but displaying I attributes and their values.

=item I

As with I, but displaying I attributes and their values.

=item I

If I is true, then B will display the list of friends of
the invoking class or object.

=item I

By default, B operates recursively, creating a dump of all
requested attribute values, and their attribute values (if they themselves
are objects). If I is set, then I will limit it's output
to the given recursive depth. A depth of C<0> will display the target's
attributes, but will not expand those attribute values.

=item I

I specifies the indentation used in the output of B,
and defaults to C<4> spaces.

=item I

If I is true, the B will back-trace references
if they are encountered multiple times in the generation of the
B output. The back-trace is similar to the default behaviour of
L, where only the first instance of a reference is shown in
full, and all other occurences are displayed as a link back to the original
occurrence of that reference. By default, I is true.


=back

If an attribute type parameter, such as I or I, is set
in the call to B then this only has effect on the target object
of the B call, and not any subsequent recursive calls to B
used to display nested objects.

=cut
BEGIN {

  #
  # create helper routines that'll be passed to Class::Declare::Dump to
  # grant it (limited) access to the object storage of Class::Declare.
  #

  # - create a routine for returning the attribute hash of an object or
  #     class, where the hash values are the current attribute values for
  #     the object, or the default attribute values for the class
  my  $__get_values__ = sub { #  |
      my  $self = shift;
      my  $hash = undef;

      # make sure we have a valid object
      ( ref( $self )
        and $hash = $__OBJECTS__{ ${ $self } }
        # and return the reference to its hash
        and return $hash )
        # or return the default values for this class
         or return  $__DEFN__{ $self };
    }; # $__get_values__()


  # - create a routine for returning the declared attributes of a given
  #     class or object
  my  $__get_attributes__ = sub { #  |
      my  $self = shift;

      return   $__ATTR__{ ref( $self ) || $self };
    }; # $__get_attributes__()


  # - create a routine for returning the list of friends of a given class
  #     or object
  my  $__get_friends__  = sub { #  |
      my  $self = shift;

      return $__FRIEND__{ ref( $self ) || $self };
    }; # $__get_friends__()


  # register the accessor methods
  #   - these are used in dump() and hash() to access private data used
  #     by Class::Declare that we don't want to have accessed from outside
  foreach ( map { join '::' , __PACKAGE__ , $_ }
                qw( Dump Hash ) ) {
    # initialise the referencing for the hash() and dump() routines
    $_->__init__( $__get_attributes__
                , $__get_values__
                , $__get_friends__
                );
  }
}


=item B [ I => I ] B<)>

Return a hash representing the values of the attributes of the class or object
(depending on how B is called. B supports the same calling
parameters as B, except for C and C).
B observes normal access control, only returning attributes that the
caller would normally have access to. C attributes are returned with
a value of C.

If called in a list context, B will return a hash, otherwise a hash
reference is returned.

B As of v0.10, B supports the I parameter, and will,
by default, recurse to generate a hash of the entire object tree (if derived
from B). If I is set, then I will limit it's
output to the given recursive depth. A depth of C<0> will display the target's
attributes, but will not expand those attribute values. B will descend
C and C references if asked to recurse.

=cut


} # end Class admin closure


=item B I => I B<)>

A class helper method for handling named argument lists. In Perl, named
argument lists are supported by coercing a list into a hash by assuming
a key/value pairing. For example, named arguments may be implemented as

  sub mysub {
    my  %args = @_;
    ...
  }

and called as

  mysub( name => 'John' , age => 34 );

C<%args> is now the hash with keys C and C and corresponding
values C<'John'> and C<34> respectively.

So if named arguments are so easy to implement, why go to the trouble of
calling B? To make your code more robust. The above example
failed to test whether there was an even number of elements in the argument
list (needed to flatten the list into a hash), and it made no checks to
ensure the supplied arguments were expected. Does C really want
a name and age, or does it want some other piece of information?

B ensures the argument list can be safely flattened into a
hash, and raises an error indicating the point at which the original method
was called if it can't. Also, it ensures the arguments passed in are those
expected by the method. Note that this does not check the argument values
themselves, but merely ensures unknown named arguments are flagged as errors.

B also enables you to define default values for your
arguments. These values will be assigned when a named argument is not
supplied in the list of arguments.

The calling convention of B is as follows (note, we assume
here that the method is in a B-derived class):

  sub mysub {
    ...
    my %args = $self->arguments( \@_ => { name => 'Guest user' ,
                                          age  => undef        } );
    ...
  }

Here, C will accept two arguments, C and C, where
the default value for C is C<'Guest user'>, while C defaults
to C.

Alternatively, B may be called in either of the following ways:

    my %args = $self->arguments( \@_ => [ qw( name age ) ] );

or

    my %args = $self->arguments( \@_ => 'name' );

Here, the default argument values are C, and in the second example,
only the the single argument I will be recognized.

If I is not given (or is undef), then B will simply
flatten the argument list into a hash and assume that all named arguments
are valid. If I is the empty hash (i.e. C<{}>), then no named
arguments will be accepted.

If called in a list context, B returns the argument hash, while
if called in a scalar context, B will return a reference to
the hash.  B may be called as either a class or instance method.

=cut
sub arguments
{
  my  $self     = __PACKAGE__->class( shift );

  # if we have no arguments then we should return undef
  return undef    unless ( @_ );

  # extract the argument list and the default arguments
  my  $args     = shift;
  my  $default  = shift;

  # make sure the first argument is a reference to an array
  ( ref( $args ) && ref( $args ) eq 'ARRAY' )
    or do {
      my  ( undef , $file , $line , $sub )  = caller 0;

      die "Array reference expected in call to "
          . "$sub() at $file line $line\n";
    };

  # to make a hash we need to ensure we have an even number of
  # arguments
  ( scalar( @{ $args } ) % 2 )
    and do {
      my  ( undef , $file , $line , $sub )  = caller 1;

      die "Odd number of arguments to $sub() at $file line $line\n";
    };

  # convert the argument list into a hash
    $args = { @{ $args } };

  # if there is a set of default arguments defined, then make sure
  # the given arguments conform, otherwise, if there are no default
  # arguments, accept whatever we're given
  if ( defined $default ) {
    # the default arguments should either be a single argument name
    $default  = { $default => undef }   unless ( ref $default );
    # or a list of argument names, where the default values are undef
    $default  = { map { $_ => undef } @{ $default } }
                      if ( ref( $default ) eq 'ARRAY' );

    # make sure default is a hash reference
    ( ref( $default ) eq 'HASH' )
      or do {
        my  ( undef , $file , $line , $sub )  = caller 0;

        die "Unrecognized default arguments $default at "
            . "$sub() file $file line $line\n";
      };

    # make sure there are no keys in the given argument list that
    # are not defined in the default argument list
    foreach ( keys %{ $args } ) {
      next  if ( exists $default->{ $_ } );

      # key doesn't exist, so die with an error
      my  ( undef , $file , $line , $sub )  = caller 1;

      die "Unknown parameter '$_' used in call to $sub() "
          . "at $file line $line\n";
    }

    # for each default argument that isn't declared in the given
    # argument list, add it to the called argument list
    $args->{ $_ } = $default->{ $_ }
      foreach ( grep { ! exists $args->{ $_ } } keys %{ $default } );
  }

  # return the argument hash
  return ( wantarray ) ? %{ $args } : $args;
} # arguments()


=item BB<)>

Extract the revision number from CVS revision strings. B looks
for the package variable C<$REVISION> for a valid CVS revision strings, and
if found, will return the revision number from the string. If $REVISION is
not defined, or does not contain a CVS revision string, then B
returns C.

  package My::Class;

  use strict;
  use base qw( Class::Declare );
  use vars qw( $REVISION      );
               $REVISION = '$Revision: 1518 $';

  ...

  1;


  print My::Class->REVISION;  # prints the revision number

=cut
sub REVISION
{
  my  $self     = __PACKAGE__->class( shift );

  # try to find the revision string
  my  $revision = undef;
  {
    local $@;
    eval {
      no strict 'refs';

      $revision = ${ $self . '::REVISION' };
    };
  }

  # if there's no revision string, then return undef
  return undef    unless ( $revision );

  # OK, now attempt to extract the revision number from the string
  #    - because we don't want to expose ourselves to CVS keyword
  #      expansion, we need to construct our target pattern
  my  $target = ucfirst( 'revision' );
  return undef    unless ( $revision =~ m#\$$target:\s*(\S+)\s*\$#o );

  # extract the revision number
    $revision = $1;
  # make sure the revision number starts with a digit
    $revision = undef   unless ( $revision =~ m#^\d#o );

  # return the revision number
  return $revision;
} # REVISION()


=item B [ I ] B<)>

Replacement for B, that falls back to B
to report the CVS revision number as the version number if the package
variable C<$VERSION> is not defined. If I is given, then
B will die if the I version is not less than or equal
to the current package version (or revision, if B falls back to
B). B will die if I is not a valid version
string.

=cut
sub VERSION(;$)
{
  my  $self       = __PACKAGE__->class( shift );

  # extract the package version (if it exists)
  #   - fallback to the REVISION if there's no version
  my  $version    = $self->SUPER::VERSION;
      $version    = $self->REVISION             if ( ! defined $version );
      $version    = version->parse( $version )  if (   defined $version );

  # have we been given a required version?
  if ( defined $_[0] ) {
    # where have we been called from?
    #   - we use this to ensure any die() message correctly reflects the
    #     location of the cause of the failure
    my    $class                    = ref( $self ) || $self;
    my  ( undef , $file , $line )   = caller 0;

    # do we have version for this pacakge?
    #   - if we don't, then we cannot support the required version
        ( defined $version )
    or die $class . ' does not define $' . $class . '::VERSION' .
          "--version check failed at $file line $line\n";

    # attempt to parse the required version
    my    $required                 = eval { version->parse( $_[0] ) };
    if ( $@ ) {
      my    $msg    = ( $@ =~ /(.*) at \S+ line \d+/ )[0];

      # terminate with an appropriate error message
      #   - we ensure the report the line with the bad version
      die $msg . " at " . $file . " line " . $line . "\n";
    }

    # is the package version/revision as required?
    ( $required <= $version )
      or die "$class version $required required--this is only version $version "
             . "at $file line $line\n";
  }

  # return the package version
  return ( defined $version ) ? $version->stringify() : undef;
} # VERSION()


=item B I B<)>

If this class directly implements the given I(), then return a
reference to this method. Otherwise, return false. This is similar to
BB, which will return a reference if this class either
directly implements I(), or inherits it.

=cut
sub has
{
  my  $self   = __PACKAGE__->class( shift );
  # if there's no method name, then raise an error
  my  $method = shift
          or do {
            # find out where we were called from
            my  ( undef , $file , $line ) = caller;

            die "no method name supplied in call to has() "
                . "at $file line $line\n";
          };

  # extract the symbol table entry for this method
  {
    no strict 'refs';
    local $^W = 0;  # suppress warnings

    my  $class  = ref( $self ) || $self;
    return *{ $class . '::'. $method }{ CODE };
  }
} # has()


=item BB<)>

If this class is operating with strict access checking (i.e. I from
B was not explicitly set to false in this class or one of its
parent classes) then B will return true, otherwise return false.

=cut
sub strict
{
  my  $self     = __PACKAGE__->class( shift );
  my  $class    = ref( $self ) || $self;

  # we test to see whether the class() method accessed through this class is
  # the same method provided by Class::Declare
  my  $mine     =      $class->can( 'class' );
  my  $original = __PACKAGE__->can( 'class' );

  # if these are the same, then we have strict checking in place
  return ( $mine == $original );
} # strict()


=back


=head1 CAVEAT

B has been designed to be thread-safe, and as such is
suitable for such environments as C. However, it has not been
proven to be thread-safe. If you are coding in a threaded environment, and
experience problems with B's behaviour, please let me know.


=head1 BUGS

The name. I don't really like B as a name, but I can't
think of anything more appropriate. I guess it really doesn't matter too
much. Suggestions welcome.

Apart from the name, B has no known bugs. That is not to
say the bugs don't exist, rather they haven't been found. The testing for
this module has been quite extensive (there are over 3000 test cases in
the module's test suite), but patches are always welcome if you discover
any problems.


=head1 SEE ALSO

L, L, L,
L, L, L.


=head1 AUTHOR

Ian Brayshaw, [e-mail]


=head1 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright 2003-2010 Ian Brayshaw. All rights reserved.

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

=cut

############################################################################
1;  # end of module
__END__