[wxperl-users] scalar reference objects?

[Scott L. <sla...@th...>]

Something I've found annoying is that some classes are
implemented as scalar references. Say I want to
subclass Wx::MenuBar. Because it is a scalar reference
instead of the normal hash reference, I can't do this:

package MyMenuBar;
use base qw(Wx::MenuBar);

sub new {
    my $class = shift;
    my ($super, $self);

    $super = $class->SUPER::new();
    $self = bless $super, $class;

    # the class is a scalar reference, so perl dies
    $self->{'mydata'} = "some string";
...
}

I can implement an accessor, or put the Wx::MenuBar into
a hash, but it's tedious and a scalar reference is unexpected.
(Plus out of laziness I prefer to use things like
Class::Accessor::Fast to autoload the accessors.)

As said in "Object Oriented Perl" by Damian Conway,

    "You almost never see a Perl class based on a blessed
    scalar value. ...

    "...in those few cases where an object _does_ possess a
    single value, it's just as easy to go with a more familiar
    hash-based implementation, using only a single entry....
    ...has the advantages of:

    Familiarity to the implementer. ...  [probably not relevant to you]
    Familiarity to others. ...           [relevant to me :)]
    Readability. ...                     [not really relevant here]
    Extensibility in subclasses. ...     [WHAT I'M FINDING ANNOYING!!]
    "

I think since wxWindows philosophy/API is very object-oriented,
that perhaps (unless there is a technical reason forbidding it)
those classes should be hash refs.