[Pdx-pm] Method::Signatures - prototypes for methods

[Hans Dieter Pearcey]

On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 10:30:25AM -0800, Erik Hollensbe wrote:
> Yeah, I remember Schwern mentioning it on IRC and my  
> excitement/discipline ratio started to get too large.
>
> Has this been talked about at a meeting? I'm wondering what the catch  
> is, if any.

All the method signatures modules use Devel::Declare, which is pretty black
magic; the distribution includes a file called stolen_chunk_of_toke.c, which
should tell you something.

That said, as black magic goes, its possible side effects are pretty limited.
It rewrites your source during compilation, so there's no possibility of e.g.
run-time segfaults or other weirdness.  Think of it as a source filter that
doesn't need to roll its own buggy Perl parser.

All in all, I think the biggest catch is for people who are wanting to use
Devel::Declare directly, since its API is still changing and you have to use a
lot of boilerplate code to do stuff with it (at least, last time I looked).

End users pretty much just have to worry about Devel::Declare failing to
install, and according to cpantesters its track record has been pretty good
recently.

hdp.