RE: AUTOLOAD in mod_perl (was Re: When perl is not quite fastenough)

[Ben Mathews <bm...@wilcoxassoc.com>]

There is a number of modules on CPAN that already do similar things

Ben


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Christopher Grau [mailto:cgrau@singleclick.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 2002 12:05 PM
> To: modperl@apache.org
> Subject: Re: AUTOLOAD in mod_perl (was Re: When perl is not quite
> fastenough)
> 
> I may be veering off-topic, but I've started doing similar things in
my
> own code (generating accessor methods via AUTOLOAD).  I ended up
writing
> `Class::Autoload,' which I intend to upload to CPAN when I'm done with
> documentation and testing.
> 
> Basically, it exports an AUTOLOAD function that will work with the
> %FIELDS hash to insert accessor methods into the symbol table as
> needed.  There's also a compile() method that can be used to
precompile
> the methods, which I thought was relevent, given the mod_perl/memory
> discussion.  It also provides for read-only methods, and a typing
system
> like that of `Class::Class.'
> 
> If there's interest, I'll clutter up the list some more with the POD.
> 
> On Tue, 2002-12-17 at 11:13, kyle dawkins wrote:
> > Perrin (et al... cc'ing this back to the list)
> >
> > Thanks for this information... it is confirming what I originally
> > thought, so I don't need to change my code (yet).  But I wanted to
post
> > it back to the list to everyone else can benefit from it.
> >
> > I personally tend to avoid AUTOLOAD, only because it is a piece of
perl
> > "magic" that can be super-confusing to developers coming to perl
(and
> > mod_perl) from other languages (um, Java) and I think there's a
> > voodoo-level involved that's a bit high for my tastes.  In the one
> > place I use it, I don't generate anything, just trap calls to
methods
> > with AUTOLOAD and perform a lookup based on the arguments.  If it
> > really is that slow, maybe I'll even rewrite that to use something
> > other than AUTOLOAD.
> >
> > Cheers!
> >
> > Kyle Dawkins
> > Central Park Software
> >
> >
> > On Tuesday, Dec 17, 2002, at 13:13 US/Eastern, Perrin Harkins wrote:
> >
> > > kyle dawkins wrote:
> > >> Sorry to mail you directly... can you just give me two cents on
your
> > >> comment below about AUTOLOAD, mod_perl and memory sharing?   I
use
> > >> AUTOLOAD in one module to perform accessors and I wonder if
there's a
> > >> better way to save memory.
> > >
> > > AUTOLOAD is kind of slow, so most people put something in there to
> > > define their accessors as subs by manipulating the symbol table.
It's
> > > easy, and Damian's book has an example.
> > >
> > > In mod_perl, you want any methods that you expect to be called to
be
> > > defined in the parent process so they will be shared.  I do this
by
> > > building all of the accessors in a BEGIN block in my module which
is
> > > called when I use it in startup.pl.
> > >
> > > - Perrin
> > >