ObjectivePerl 0.04

ObjectivePerl is an Objective-C style syntax and runtime for perl.

SYNOPSIS

use ObjectivePerl;
@implementation MyClass
{
$someInstanceVariable;
@private: $privateInstanceVariable;
@protected: $normalInstanceVariable, $anotherInstanceVariable;
}

+ new {
return ~[$super new];
}

- setSomeInstanceVariable: $value {
$someInstanceVariable = $value;
}

- someInstanceVariable {
return $someInstanceVariable;
}
@end
then, from a calling script or class:
use ObjectivePerl;
...
my $instance = ~[MyClass new];
~[$instance setSomeInstanceVariable: "Hey you!"];
print ~[$instance someInstanceVariable]."n";

ObjectivePerl adds obj-c style syntax (although its implemented with ~[] instead of just []) along with an obj-c style runtime that is very lightweight but makes the perl runtime a little more friendly to obj-c programmers.

Why, you ask? Just because. Obj-c has the easiest-to-read syntax of just about any language. It has Smalltalk-style named arguments that are built into the method signature, so when you invoke those methods, youre forced to invoke them neatly, in a very legible fashion:

~[$window setTitleTo:"New window" withColor:0xffffff
andBackground:0x000000];

can never be misunderstood, whereas

$window->setTitle("New window", 0xffffff, 0x00000);

could be. Perl offers named arguments already in the form of hashes, but these are unwieldy (to an obj-c programmer).