Can I create Java-like interfaces in Perl?

Question

I understand that Perl's OO model is rather primitive; it is, in most respects, essentially a namespace hack.

Nevertheless, I wonder if it is possible to create something like an "interface?" My goal is to have a base class from which others are extended whose principal purpose is to make mandatory the implementation of certain methods (by name is fine, no signature necessary) by those subclasses. I don't really care if it's a "purely virtual" class (like an "interface" in Java) or a concrete class with actual implementational stubs for those methods in the superclass, but what I want is to make it deterministically necessary that the subclass implement certain methods of the superclass.

Is this possible? If so, how?

Answer 1

I am not sure how you will be able to implement it. However, have a look at Moose, which is "A postmodern object system for Perl 5".

• Moose::Manual
• Moose::Cookbook

Answer 2

Simple solution that creates errors at runtime:

package SomeVirtualClass;

use strict;
use warnings;

use Carp;

sub some_method { croak "virtual method some_method not overridden" }

Answer 3

The Class::Contract can help with this. It supports compile-time contract checking.

Answer 4

I have a lightweight pattern I call "Compatible", and I discuss it in my answer to How important is it to indicate if a class implements an interface in Perl?

It's just a matter of sticking pseudo packages in @ISA:

our @ISA = qw<... X::Compatible ...>;

You break their code if you don't do what they expect from X. In practice I have a bunch of documented behaviors that I reuse, but a class telling me it's X::Compatible is what I use to assure myself that it can do what I expect.

Since perl 5.10 has introduced the DOES concept, which is about as lightweight, a X::Compatible object inherits from a base class Object::Compatible which implements a base DOES by looking through @ISA for /::Compatible$/ and replying to the affirmative for anything in there. The idea is that:

$object->DOES( $x ) == $object->isa( $x . '::Compatible' )

Answer 5

Here's an answer using Moose ...

package Comparable;
use Moose::Role;

requires 'eq';

package Person;

has size => (
    is   => 'ro',
    does => 'Comparable',
);

Now the size attribute must be an object which implements the Comparable "interface". In Moose-land, interfaces are roles, and roles can be more than just an interface definition.

Answer 6

I think the whole idea of mandating implementation/overloading of base class's functions/subs is foreign to Perl. At which point would you envision the enforcement mechanism working?

If you're OK with doing this at runtime, you can die if your base class's implementation gets called.

EDIT: Actually, yes, Class::Contract seems to be the way to go.