NAME

       Class::Gomor - another class and object builder

DESCRIPTION

       This module is yet another class builder. This one adds parameter checking in new
       constructor, that is to check for attributes existence, and definedness.

       In order to validate parameters, the module needs to find attributes, and that is the
       reason for declaring attributes in global variables named @AS, @AA, @AO. They respectively
       state for Attributes Scalar, Attributes Array and Attributes Other. The last one is used
       to avoid autocreation of accessors, that is to let you declare your own ones.

       Attribute validation is performed by looking at classes hierarchy, by following @ISA tree
       inheritance.

       The loss in speed by validating all attributes is quite negligeable on a decent machine
       (Pentium IV, 2.4 GHz) with Perl 5.8.x. But if you want to avoid checking, you can do it,
       see below.

       This class is the base class for Class::Gomor::Array and Class::Gomor::Hash, so they will
       inherite the following methods.

GLOBAL VARIABLES

       $NoCheck
           Import it in your namespace like this:

           use Class::Gomor qw($NoCheck);

           If you want to disable cgCheckParams to improve speed once your program is frozen, you
           can use this variable. Set it to 1 to disable parameter checking.

       $Debug
           Import it in your namespace like this:

           use Class::Gomor qw($Debug);

           This variable is used by the cgDebugPrint method.

METHODS

       cgCheckParams (hash ref, array ref)
           The attribute checking method takes two arguments, the first is user passed attributes
           (as a hash reference), the second is the list of valid attributes, gathered via
           cgGetAttributes method (as an array ref). A message is displayed if passed parameters
           are not valid.

       cgGetIsaTree (array ref)
           A recursive method. You pass a class in an array reference as an argument, and then
           the @ISA array is browsed, recursively. The array reference passed as an argument is
           increased with new classes, pushed into it. It returns nothing, result is stored in
           the array ref.

       cgGetAttributes
           This method returns available attributes for caller's object class. It uses
           cgGetIsaTree to search recursively in class hierarchy. It then returns an array
           reference with all possible attributes.

       cgBuildAccessorsScalar (array ref)
           Accessor creation method. Takes an array reference containing all scalar attributes to
           create. Scalar accessors are stored in a global variable names @AS. So you call this
           method at the beginning of your class like that:

           __PACKAGE__->cgBuildAccessorsScalar(\@AS);

       cgBuildAccessorsArray (array ref)
           Accessor creation method. Takes an array reference containing all array attributes to
           create. Array accessors are stored in a global variable names @AA. So you call this
           method at the beginning of your class like that:

           __PACKAGE__->cgBuildAccessorsArray(\@AA);

       cgClone [ (scalar) ]
           You can clone one of your objects by calling this method. An optional parameter may be
           used to create multiple clones. Cloning will occure only on the first level
           attributes, that is, if you have attributes containing other objects, they will not be
           cloned.

       cgFullClone [ (scalar) ]
           This method is the same as cgClone, but will clone all attributes recursively, but
           only if they are subclassed from Class::Gomor. So, objects created with other modules
           than Class::Gomor::Array or Class::Gomor::Hash will not be cloned.

           Another thing to note, there is no catch for cycling references (when you link two
           objects with each others). You have been warned.

       cgDebugPrint (scalar, scalar)
           First argument is a debug level. It is compared with global $Debug, and if it is less
           than it, the second argument (a message string) is displayed. This method exists
           because I use it, maybe you will not like it.

SEE ALSO

       Class::Gomor::Array, Class::Gomor::Hash

AUTHOR

       Patrice <GomoR> Auffret

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       Copyright (c) 2004-2009, Patrice <GomoR> Auffret

       You may distribute this module under the terms of the Artistic license.  See
       LICENSE.Artistic file in the source distribution archive.