Moose::Manual::BestPractices(3pm)

NAME

Moose::Manual::BestPractices - Get the most out of Moose

RECOMMENDATIONS

Moose has a lot of features, and there's definitely more than one way
to do it. However, we think that picking a subset of these features and using them consistently makes everyone's life easier.

Of course, as with any list of "best practices", these are really just opinions. Feel free to ignore us.
"namespace::autoclean" and immutabilize: We recommend that you remove the Moose sugar and end your Moose class
definitions by making your class immutable.

package Person;

use Moose;
use namespace::autoclean;

# extends, roles, attributes, etc.

# methods

__PACKAGE__->meta->make_immutable;

1;; The "use namespace::autoclean" bit is simply good code hygiene, as it
removes imported symbols from you class's namespace at the end of your package's compile cycle, including Moose keywords. Once the class has been built, these keywords are not needed. The "make_immutable" call
allows Moose to speed up a lot of things, most notably object
construction. The trade-off is that you can no longer change the class definition.; You can also write "no Moose" to unimport only Moose's imported
symbols. The namespace::clean module is another alternative, providing finer-grained control than namespace::autoclean.
Never override "new": Overriding "new" is a very bad practice. Instead, you should use a
"BUILD" or "BUILDARGS" methods to do the same thing. When you override "new", Moose can no longer inline a constructor when your class is
immutabilized.; There are two good reasons to override "new". One, you are writing a
MooseX extension that provides its own Moose::Object subclass and a subclass of Moose::Meta::Method::Constructor to inline the constructor. Two, you are subclassing a non-Moose parent.; If you know how to do that, you know when to ignore this best practice ;)
Always call "SUPER::BUILDARGS": If you override the "BUILDARGS" method in your class, make sure to play nice and call "SUPER::BUILDARGS" to handle cases you're not checking
for explicitly.; The default "BUILDARGS" method in Moose::Object handles both a list and hashref of named parameters correctly, and also checks for a nonhashref single argument.
Provide defaults whenever possible, otherwise use "required": When your class provides defaults, this makes constructing new objects simpler. If you cannot provide a default, consider making the attribute "required".; If you don't do either, an attribute can simply be left unset,
increasing the complexity of your object, because it has more possible states that you or the user of your class must account for.
Use "builder" instead of "default" most of the time: Builders can be inherited, they have explicit names, and they're just
plain cleaner.; However, do use a default when the default is a non-reference, or when the default is simply an empty reference of some sort.; Also, keep your builder methods private.
Use "lazy_build": Lazy is good, and often solves initialization ordering problems. It's
also good for deferring work that may never have to be done. If you're going to be lazy, use "lazy_build" to save yourself some typing and
standardize names.
Consider keeping clearers and predicates private: Does everyone really need to be able to clear an attribute? Probably not. Don't expose this functionality outside your class by default.; Predicates are less problematic, but there's no reason to make your
public API bigger than it has to be.
Default to read-only, and consider keeping writers private: Making attributes mutable just means more complexity to account for in your program. The alternative to mutable state is to encourage users of your class to simply make new objects as needed.; If you must make an attribute read-write, consider making the writer a separate private method. Narrower APIs are easy to maintain, and
mutable state is trouble.; In order to declare such attributes, provide a private "writer"
parameter:

has pizza => (
is => 'ro',
isa => 'Pizza',
writer => '_pizza',

);
Think twice before changing an attribute's type in a subclass: Down this path lies great confusion. If the attribute is an object
itself, at least make sure that it has the same interface as the type
of object in the parent class.
Don't use the "initializer" feature: Don't know what we're talking about? That's fine.
Use Moose::Meta::Attribute::Native traits instead of "auto_deref": The "auto_deref" feature is a bit troublesome. Directly exposing a
complex attribute is ugly. Instead, consider using
Moose::Meta::Attribute::Native traits to define an API that exposes
only necessary pieces of functionality.
Always call "inner" in the most specific subclass: When using "augment" and "inner", we recommend that you call "inner" in the most specific subclass of your hierarchy. This makes it possible to subclass further and extend the hierarchy without changing the parents.
Namespace your types: Use some sort of namespacing convention for type names. We recommend
something like "MyApp::Type::Foo".; If you're intending to package your types up for re-use using
MooseX::Types later, avoid using characters that are invalid in perl
identifiers such as a space or period.
Do not coerce Moose built-ins directly: If you define a coercion for a Moose built-in like "ArrayRef", this
will affect every application in the Perl interpreter that uses this
type.

# very naughty!
coerce 'ArrayRef'
=> from Str
=> via { [ split /,/ ] };
Instead, create a subtype and coerce that:: subtype 'My::ArrayRef' => as 'ArrayRef';; coerce 'My::ArrayRef'
=> from 'Str'
=> via { [ split /,/ ] };
Do not coerce class names directly: Just as with Moose built-in types, a class type is global for the
entire interpreter. If you add a coercion for that class name, it can
have magical side effects elsewhere:

# also very naughty!
coerce 'HTTP::Headers'
=> from 'HashRef'
=> via { HTTP::Headers->new( %{$_} ) };
Instead, we can create an "empty" subtype for the coercion:: subtype 'My::HTTP::Headers' => as class_type('HTTP::Headers');; coerce 'My::HTTP::Headers'
=> from 'HashRef'
=> via { HTTP::Headers->new( %{$_} ) };
Use coercion instead of unions: Consider using a type coercion instead of a type union. This was
covered at length in Moose::Manual::Types.
Define all your types in one module: Define all your types and coercions in one module. This was also
covered in Moose::Manual::Types.

BENEFITS OF BEST PRACTICES

Following these practices has a number of benefits.

It helps ensure that your code will play nice with others, making it
more reusable and easier to extend.

Following an accepted set of idioms will make maintenance easier,
especially when someone else has to maintain your code. It will also
make it easier to get support from other Moose users, since your code
will be easier to digest quickly.

Some of these practices are designed to help Moose do the right thing, especially when it comes to immutabilization. This means your code will be faster when immutabilized.

Many of these practices also help get the most out of meta programming. If you used an overridden "new" to do type coercion by hand, rather
than defining a real coercion, there is no introspectable metadata.
This sort of thing is particularly problematic for MooseX extensions
which rely on introspection to do the right thing.

AUTHOR

Yuval (nothingmuch) Kogman

Dave Rolsky <autarch@urth.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

<http://www.iinteractive.com>

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

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