'use subs' causes method to vanish

gnosti has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello August Monks and Monkesses!

I've got an app with a subroutine, init_gui(), that is called through an object:

$ui->init_gui

When I add the line:

use subs 'init_gui';

to the Graphical package where init_gui() is defined, my app dies with undefined subroutine &...Graphical::init_gui called in line 895.

A test using an identical object model does not exhibit this behavior, nor does 'use subs' cause every method to fail.

What parts of perl or of my app, should I be examining to better understand what is going on? AFAIK there is no source filtering where I can lay the blame.

Thanks for reading.

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Re: 'use subs' causes method to vanish by zwon (Abbot) on Feb 05, 2009 at 20:43 UTC
`use subs` rewrites existing symbols. Place use subs before init_gui definition. There's no sense to `use subs` after function is declared. Update: BTW, I don't think you should use subs at all in this application.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: 'use subs' causes method to vanish by gnosti (Chaplain) on Feb 05, 2009 at 20:55 UTC
You're right, I don't need (and from this result won't be using) `use subs` for an object method. I only encountered this because I used a script to `use subs` for all subs, to be able to begin to get rid of parentheses for non-object subs. I can sort out the methods from the subs and solve the problem, and I'd like to understand perl internals better, too. Hence this posting.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: 'use subs' causes method to vanish by chromatic (Archbishop) on Feb 05, 2009 at 22:51 UTC
I only encountered this because I used a script to use subs for all subs, to be able to begin to get rid of parentheses for non-object subs. As you've seen, that's a bad idea. If you're rigorous about the order in which Perl compiles your code, you can get away with it... but I like to avoid code which relies on a well-defined order of appearance in the compilation process, as it seems fragile.	[reply]
Re^4: 'use subs' causes method to vanish by gnosti (Chaplain) on Feb 05, 2009 at 23:56 UTC
Re^5: 'use subs' causes method to vanish by chromatic (Archbishop) on Feb 06, 2009 at 02:31 UTC
Some notes below your chosen depth have not been shown here
Re: 'use subs' causes method to vanish by linuxer (Curate) on Feb 05, 2009 at 20:42 UTC
Having read the perldoc subs I wonder, if it is intented for usage in OO style. Though I cannot explain what happens internally.	[reply]

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