NAME

MooseX::ArrayRef - blessed arrayrefs with Moose

SYNOPSIS

  {
    package Local::Person;
    use Moose;
    has name => (
      is    => 'ro',
      isa   => 'Str',
    );
    __PACKAGE__->meta->make_immutable;
  }
  
  {
    package Local::Marriage;
    use MooseX::ArrayRef;
    has husband => (
      is    => 'ro',
      isa   => 'Local::Person',
    );
    has wife => (
      is    => 'ro',
      isa   => 'Local::Person',
    );
    __PACKAGE__->meta->make_immutable;
  }
  
  my $marriage = Local::Marriage->new(
    wife      => Local::Person->new(name => 'Alex'),
    husband   => Local::Person->new(name => 'Sam'),
  );
  
  use Data::Dumper;
  use Scalar::Util qw(reftype);
  print reftype($marriage), "\n";   # 'ARRAY'
  print Dumper($marriage);

DESCRIPTION

Objects implemented with arrayrefs rather than hashrefs are often faster than those implemented with hashrefs. Moose's default object implementation is hashref based. Can we go faster?

Simply "use MooseX::ArrayRef" instead of "use Moose", but note the limitations in the section below.

The current implementation is mostly a proof of concept, but it does mostly seem to work.

BUGS AND LIMITATIONS

Limitations on Speed

The accessors for mutable classes not significantly faster than Moose's traditional hashref-based objects. For immutable classes, the speed up is bigger

               Rate  HashRef_M ArrayRef_M  HashRef_I ArrayRef_I
  HashRef_M  1016/s         --        -1%       -48%       -55%
  ArrayRef_M 1031/s         1%         --       -47%       -54%
  HashRef_I  1953/s        92%        89%         --       -13%
  ArrayRef_I 2257/s       122%       119%        16%         --

Limitations on Mutability

Things will probably break if you try to modify classes, add roles, etc "on the fly". Make your classes immutable before instantiating even a single object.

Limitations on Inheritance

Inheritance isn't easy to implement with arrayrefs. The current implementation suffers from the following limitations:

Single inheritance only.
You cannot extend multiple parent classes.
Inherit from other MooseX::ArrayRef classes only.
A MooseX::ArrayRef class cannot extend a non-MooseX::ArrayRef class. Even non-Moose classes which are implemented using arrayrefs. (Of course, all Moose classes inherit from Moose::Object too, which is just fine.)

Note that delegation (via Moose's "handles") is often a good alternative to inheritance.

Issue Tracker

Please report any bugs to <http://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Queue=MooseX-ArrayRef>.

AUTHOR

Toby Inkster <tobyink@cpan.org>.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

THIS PACKAGE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.