I think this discussion is pointless. You either provide an interface to your module---then you decide if it supports can()---or you implement an interface another module expects---then the author of that module decided if can() is needed. That's it.

Implementing a working can() isn't that hard. I'd say this should work (ATTN: untested, WILL contain syntax errors):

sub can {
    my ($self, $what, $code) = (@_[0,1], undef);
    return $code if $code = $self->UNIVERSAL::can($what);
    return $code if $code = $self->_can($what);
    foreach my $superclass (@ISA) {
        return $code if $code = eval "\$self->${superclass}::can(\$wha
+t)";
    }
    return undef;
}

sub _can { # aka _load()
    my ($self, $what) = @_;
    if ($what eq 'foo') {
        return sub {'foo'};
    } else {
        return undef;
    }
}

sub AUTOLOAD {
    my ($self, $code) = ($_[0], undef);
    goto &$code if $code = $self->can($AUTOLOAD);
    die "oops";
}
[download]

PS: This even provides a working way for using AUTOLOAD with multi-inheritance, I'd say.

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