Free class diagram software for linux

Class::Generate is a Perl module that can generate Perl class hierarchies.

SYNOPSIS

use Class::Generate qw(class subclass delete_class);

# Declare class Class_Name, with the following types of members:
class
Class_Name => [
s => $, # scalar
a => @, # array
h => %, # hash
c => Class, # Class
c_a => @Class, # array of Class
c_h => %Class, # hash of Class
&m => body, # method
];

# Allocate an instance of class_name, with members initialized to the
# given values (pass arrays and hashes using references).
$obj = Class_Name->new ( s => scalar,
a => [ values ],
h => { key1 => v1, ... },
c => Class->new,
c_a => [ Class->new, ... ],
c_h => [ key1 => Class->new, ... ] );

# Scalar type accessor:
$obj->s($value); # Assign $value to member s.
$member_value = $obj->s; # Access members value.

# (Class) Array type accessor:
$obj->a([value1, value2, ...]); # Assign whole array to member.
$obj->a(2, $value); # Assign $value to array member 2.
$obj->add_a($value); # Append $value to end of array.
@a = $obj->a; # Access whole array.
$ary_member_value = $obj->a(2); # Access array member 2.
$s = $obj->a_size; # Return size of array.
$value = $obj->last_a; # Return last element of array.

# (Class) Hash type accessor:
$obj->h({ k_1=>v1, ..., k_n=>v_n }) # Assign whole hash to member.
$obj->h($key, $value); # Assign $value to hash member $key.
%hash = $obj->h; # Access whole hash.
$hash_member_value = $obj->h($key); # Access hash member value $key.
$obj->delete_h($key); # Delete slot occupied by $key.
@keys = $obj->h_keys; # Access keys of member h.
@values = $obj->h_values; # Access values of member h.

$another = $obj->copy; # Copy an object.
if ( $obj->equals($another) ) { ... } # Test equality.

subclass s => [ ], -parent => class_name;

The Class::Generate package exports functions that take as arguments a class specification and create from these specifications a Perl 5 class. The specification language allows many object-oriented constructs: typed members, inheritance, private members, required members, default values, object methods, class methods, class variables, and more.

CPAN contains similar packages. Why another? Because object-oriented programming, especially in a dynamic language like Perl, is a complicated endeavor. I wanted a package that would work very hard to catch the errors you (well, I anyway) commonly make. I wanted a package that could help me enforce the contract of object-oriented programming. I also wanted it to get out of my way when I asked.

Class::DispatchToAll Perl module can dispatch a method call to all inherited methods.

SYNOPSIS

package My::Class;
our @ISA=qw(SomeClass SomeOtherClass More::Classes);
use Class::DispatchToAll qw(dispatch_to_all);

my $self=bless {},My::Class # not a proper constructor, I know..

# this calls some_method in all Classes My::Class inherits from
# and all classes those classes inherit from, and all ... you get
# the point.
$self->dispatch_to_all(some_method);

# saves all return values from all calls in an array
my @returns=$self->dispatch_to_all(some_method);

See the Docs of Damian Conways Module Class::Delegation for a good introduction about Dispatching vs. Inheritance.

Class::DispatchToAll enables you to call all instantances of a method in your inheritance tree (or labyrinth..).

The standard Perl behaviour is to call only the lefternmost instance it can fing doing a depth first traversial.

Imagine the following class structure:
C
/
A B C::C
/ /
A::A D
/
My::Class

Perl will try to find a method in this mess in this order:

My::Class -> A::A -> A -> B -> D -> B -> C::C -> C
(Note that it will look twice in B because B is a parent of both A::A and D))

As soon as Perl finds the method somewhere, it will short-circuit out of its search and invoke the method.

And that is exactly the behaviour Class::DispatchToAll changes.

If you use dispatch_to_all (provided by Class::DispatchToAll) to call your method, Perl will look in all of the aforementioned packages and run all the methods it can find. It will even collect all the return values and return them to you as an array, if you want it too.