>perl -wMstrict -le "use 5.014; ;; package Foo { sub new { return bless { fooble => 'wonkem' }; } sub mungeit { my $self = shift; my ($m) = @_; return $self->{fooble} .= $m; } } ;; package Bar { sub new { return bless { fooble => 1729 }; } sub mungeit { my $self = shift; my ($m) = @_; return $self->{fooble} += $m; } } ;; my $foo_obj = Foo->new; my $bar_obj = Bar->new; ;; print $foo_obj->mungeit('zoot'); print $bar_obj->mungeit(42); ;; bless $foo_obj, 'Bar'; ;; print $foo_obj->mungeit('zonk'); " wonkemzoot 1771 Argument "zonk" isn't numeric in addition (+) at -e line 1. Argument "wonkemzoot" isn't numeric in addition (+) at -e line 1. 0