Parse::Method::Signatures(3)				User Contributed Perl Documentation			      Parse::Method::Signatures(3)

NAME

       Parse::Method::Signatures - Perl6 like method signature parser

DESCRIPTION

       Inspired by Perl6::Signature but streamlined to just support the subset deemed useful for TryCatch and MooseX::Method::Signatures.

TODO

       o   Document the parameter return types.

       o   Probably lots of other things

METHODS

       There are only two public methods to this module, both of which should be called as class methods. Both methods accept  either a single
       (non-ref) scalar as the value for the "input" attribute, or normal new style arguments (hash or hash-ref).

   signature
	my $sig = Parse::Method::Signatures->signature( '(Str $foo)' )

       Attempts to parse the (bracketed) method signature. Returns a value or croaks on error.

   param
	 my $param = Parse::Method::Signatures->param( 'Str $foo where { length($_) < 10 }')

       Attempts to parse the specification for a single parameter. Returns value or croaks on error.

ATTRIBUTES

       All the attributes on this class are read-only.

   input
       Type: Str

       The string to parse.

   offset
       Type: Int

       Offset into "input" at which to start parsing. Useful for using with Devel::Declare linestring

   signature_class
       Default: Parse::Method::Signatures::Sig

       Type: Str (loaded on demand class name)

   param_class
       Default: Parse::Method::Signatures::Param

       Type: Str (loaded on demand class name)

   type_constraint_class
       Default: Parse::Method::Signatures::TypeConstraint

       Type: Str (loaded on demand class name)

       Class that is used to turn the parsed type constraint into an actual Moose::Meta::TypeConstraint object.

   from_namespace
       Type: ClassName

       Let this module know which package it is parsing signatures form. This is entirely optional, and the only effect is has is on parsing type
       constraints.

       If this attribute is set it is passed to "type_constraint_class" which can use it to introspect the package (commmonly for MooseX::Types
       exported types). See "find_registered_constraint" in Parse::Method::Signature::TypeConstraints for more details.

   type_constraint_callback
       Type: CodeRef

       Passed to the constructor of "type_constraint_class". Default implementation of this callback asks Moose for a type constrain matching the
       name passed in.	If you have more complex requirements, such as parsing types created by MooseX::Types then you will want a callback
       similar to this:

	# my $target_package defined elsewhere.
	my $tc_cb = sub {
	  my ($pms_tc, $name) = @_;
	  my $code = $target_package->can($name);
	  $code ? eval { $code->() }
		: $pms_tc->find_registered_constraint($name);
	}

       Note that the above example is better provided by providing the "from_namespace" attribute.

CAVEATS

       Like Perl6::Signature, the parsing of certain constructs is currently only a 'best effort' - specifically default values and where code
       blocks might not successfully for certain complex cases. Patches/Failing tests welcome.

       Additionally, default value specifications are not evaluated which means that no such lexical or similar errors will not be produced by
       this module.  Constant folding will also not be performed.

       There are certain constructs that are simply too much hassle to avoid when the work around is simple. Currently the only cases that are
       known to parse wrong are when using anonymous variables (i.e. just sigils) in unpacked arrays. Take the following example:

	method foo (ArrayRef [$, $], $some_value_we_care_about) {

       In this case the $] is treated as one of perl's magic variables (specifically, the patch level of the Perl interpreter) rather than a "$"
       followed by a "]" as was almost certainly intended. The work around for this is simple: introduce a space between the charcters:

	method foo (ArrayRef [ $, $ ], $some_value_we_care_about) {

       The same applies

AUTHOR

       Ash Berlin <ash@cpan.org>.

       Thanks to Florian Ragwitz <rafl@debian.org>.

       Many thanks to Piers Cawley to showing me the way to refactor my spaghetti code into something more manageable.

SEE ALSO

       Devel::Declare which is used by most modules that use this (currently by all modules known to the author.)

       <http://github.com/ashb/trycatch/tree>.

LICENSE

       Licensed under the same terms as Perl itself.

       This distribution copyright 2008-2009, Ash Berlin <ash@cpan.org>

perl v5.16.2							    2011-09-09					      Parse::Method::Signatures(3)