Re^2: goto superclass method

[chromatic]

Why go to so much work to try to make polymorphism work only to break it by calling a UNIVERSAL method explicitly?

[Ovid]

Well, calling can directly can break if you have something in @ISA that isn't a class (such as a coderef: Class::Dynamic). Out of habit I try to call UNIVERSAL::can unless the $object->can('can');

Perhaps I'm being overly paranoid.

[chromatic]

How do you know in general whether the object or class has its own can though? (Easy answer, but not one you'll like.)

I prefer to use Scalar::Util's blessed to see if I can invoke operations on an object, though wrapping the call in an eval block is safer if you expect class names as well.

[Ovid]

I guess in this case it would be preferable to call call can as a method and let the code die and then worry about what to do if it fails. That's probably better than my silently failing or doing the wrong thing because of an overridden can.

[Joost]

This is the first time i've ever seen an excuse for using UNIVERSAL::can directly, but I still don't like it :-)

Doesn't this just mean that putting coderefs in your @ISA is just breaking things anyway?