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All the Perl that's Practical to Extract and Report
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On method chaining (Score:3, Interesting)
In my new Alpaca book [oreilly.com], I argue that for a getter/setter method, there are arguments in favor of any one of four return values from the setter method:
- a simple true/false status (yes I was able to set this),
- the newly set value, turning the setter into an immediate getter as well,
- the previous value (ala umask and single-arg select), allowing flip-flop settings trivially, or
- the object itself, allowing for chained settings.
For anything but the first, a die has to be used to signal error.As long as it's documented, it's fine. Don't demand consistency. Any one of these four returns is fine.
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