Why load two modules to call methods on the same object?

[Himanshu <hi...@gmail.com>]

For the following to work I must load Apache2RequestRec as well as
Apache2::RequestIO.

package GS;
use Apache2::Const -compile => ':common';
use Apache2::RequestRec ();# $r->content_type
use Apache2::RequestIO ();   # $r->print

sub handler {
   my $r = shift;
   print $r->content_type('text/plain');
   print $r->print("hello, world");
   return Apache2::Const::OK;
}

1;

There must be a reason we have it this way. Any clues?

Thanks,
Himanshu

Re: Why load two modules to call methods on the same object?

[Perrin Harkins <pe...@elem.com>]

On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 11:00 PM, Himanshu <hi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> For the following to work I must load Apache2RequestRec as well as
> Apache2::RequestIO.

The idea is that you don't load what you don't need, which reduces
memory consumption, which is the bottleneck on most mod_perl
applications.  I think it's usually not worth it, but that was the
theory.

- Perrin

Re: Why load two modules to call methods on the same object?

[John Drago <jd...@yahoo.com>]

--- On Tue, 9/16/08, Himanshu <hi...@gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Himanshu <hi...@gmail.com>
> Subject: Why load two modules to call methods on the same object?
> To: modperl@perl.apache.org
> Date: Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 9:00 PM
> For the following to work I must load Apache2RequestRec as
> well as
> Apache2::RequestIO.
> 
> package GS;
> use Apache2::Const -compile => ':common';
> use Apache2::RequestRec ();# $r->content_type
> use Apache2::RequestIO ();   # $r->print
> 
> sub handler {
>    my $r = shift;
>    print $r->content_type('text/plain');
>    print $r->print("hello, world");
>    return Apache2::Const::OK;
> }
> 
> 1;
> 
> There must be a reason we have it this way. Any clues?
> 
> Thanks,
> Himanshu


<rant>
I've been coding with mod_perl since 2000 (IIRC) and I don't have a straightforward answer for you.

I suppose it's possible that rather than load up all the "non-core" behaviors (like, you know, really strange ones that nobody ever uses, like "print") you have to load those modules yourself.

Just keep repeating to yourself, "This is to make mod_perl faster."
</rant>

One advantage you get by having to load up those modules yourself is that you can (in theory) shave off an extra millisecond or two.  Somehow magickally.

I wish mod_perl handlers were a bit more intuitive myself.  The whole thing just seems very un-Perlish.  Probably because it's just a very thin layer around the Apache API.

Go figure.