Name
    Class::Delegator - Simple and fast object-oriented delegation

Synopsis
      package Car;

      use Class::Delegator
          send => 'start',
            to => '{engine}',

          send => 'power',
            to => 'flywheel',
            as => 'brake',

          send => [qw(play pause rewind fast_forward shuffle)],
            to => 'ipod',

          send => [qw(accelerate decelerate)],
            to => 'brakes',
            as => [qw(start stop)],

          send => 'drive',
            to => [qw(right_rear_wheel left_rear_wheel)],
            as => [qw(rotate_clockwise rotate_anticlockwise)]
      ;

Description
    This module provides a subset of the functionality of Damian Conway's
    lovely Class::Delegation module. Why a subset? Well, I didn't need all
    of the fancy matching semantics, just string string specifications to
    map delegations. Furthermore, I wanted it to be fast (See Benchmarks).
    And finally, since Class::Delegation uses an "INIT" block to do its
    magic, it doesn't work in persistent environments that don't execute
    "INIT" blocks, such as in mod_perl.

    However the specification semantics of Class::Delegator differ slightly
    from those of Class::Delegation, so this module isn't a drop-in
    replacement for Class::Delegation. Read on for details.

  Specifying methods to be delegated
    The names of methods to be redispatched can be specified using the
    "send" parameter. This parameter may be specified as a single string or
    as an array of strings. A single string specifies a single method to be
    delegated, while an array reference is a list of methods to be
    delegated.

  Specifying attributes to be delegated to
    Use the "to" parameter to specify the attribute(s) or accessor method(s)
    to which the method(s) specified by the "send" parameter are to be
    delegated. The semantics of the "to" parameter are a bit different from
    Class::Delegation. In order to ensure the fastest performance possible,
    this module simply installs methods into the calling class to handle the
    delegation. There is no use of $AUTOLOAD or other such trickery. But
    since the new methods are installed by "eval"ing a string, the "to"
    parameter for each delegation statement must be specified in the manner
    appropriate to accessing the underlying attribute. For example, to
    delegate a method call to an attribute stored in a hash key, simply wrap
    the key in braces:

      use Class::Delegator
          send => 'start',
            to => '{engine}',
      ;

    To delegate to a method, simply name the method:

      use Class::Delegator
          send => 'power',
            to => 'flywheel',
      ;

    If your objects are array-based, wrap the appropriate array index number
    in brackets:

      use Class::Delegator
          send => 'idle',
            to => '[3]',
      ;

    And so on.

  Specifying the name of a delegated method
    Sometimes it's necessary for the name of the method that's being
    delegated to be different from the name of the method to which you're
    delegating execution. For example, your class might already have a
    method with the same name as the method to which you're delegating. The
    "as" parameter allows you translate the method name or names in a
    delegation statement. The value associated with an "as" parameter
    specifies the name of the method to be invoked, and may be a string or
    an array (with the number of elements in the array matching the number
    of elements in a corresponding "send" array).

    If the attribute is specified via a single string, that string is taken
    as the name of the attribute to which the associated method (or methods)
    should be delegated. For example, to delegate invocations of
    "$self->power(...)" to "$self->{flywheel}->brake(...)":

      use Class::Delegator
          send => 'power',
            to => '{flywheel}',
            as => 'brake',
      ;

    If both the "send" and the "as" parameters specify array references,
    each local method name and deleted method name form a pair, which is
    invoked. For example:

      use Class::Delegator
          send => [qw(accelerate decelerate)],
            to => 'brakes',
            as => [qw(start stop)],
      ;

    In this example, the "accelerate" method will be delegated to the
    "start" method of the "brakes" attribute and the "decelerate" method
    will be delegated to the "stop" method of the "brakes" attribute.

  Delegation to multiple attributes in parallel
    An array reference can be used as the value of the "to" parameter to
    specify the a list of attributes, *all of which* are delegated to--in
    the same order as they appear in the array. In this case, the "send"
    parameter must be a scalar value, not an array of methods to delegate.

    For example, to distribute invocations of "$self->drive(...)" to both
    "$self->{left_rear_wheel}->drive(...)" and
    "$self->{right_rear_wheel}->drive(...)":

      use Class::Delegator
          send => 'drive',
            to => ["{left_rear_wheel}", "{right_rear_wheel}"]
      ;

    Note that using an array to specify parallel delegation has an effect on
    the return value of the delegation method specified by the "send"
    parameter. In a scalar context, the original call returns a reference to
    an array containing the (scalar context) return values of each of the
    calls. In a list context, the original call returns a list of array
    references containing references to the individual (list context) return
    lists of the calls. So, for example, if the "cost" method of a class
    were delegated like so:

      use Class::Delegator
          send => 'cost',
            to => ['supplier', 'manufacturer', 'distributor']
      ;

    then the total cost could be calculated like this:

      use List::Util 'sum';
      my $total = sum @{$obj->cost()};

    If both the "to" key and the "as" parameters specify multiple values,
    then each attribute and method name form a pair, which is invoked. For
    example:

      use Class::Delegator
          send => 'escape',
            to => ['{flywheel}', '{smokescreen}'],
            as => ['engage',   'release'],
      ;

    would sequentially call, within the "escape()" delegation method:

      $self->{flywheel}->engage(...);
      $self->{smokescreen}->release(...);

Benchmarks
    I whipped up a quick script to compare the performance of
    Class::Delegator to Class::Delegation and a manually-installed
    delegation method (the control). I'll let the numbers speak for
    themselves:

      Benchmark: timing 1000000 iterations of Class::Delegation, Class::Delegator, Manually...
      Class::Delegation: 106 wallclock secs (89.03 usr +  2.09 sys = 91.12 CPU) @ 10974.54/s  (n=1000000)
      Class::Delegator:    3 wallclock secs ( 3.44 usr +  0.02 sys =  3.46 CPU) @ 289017.34/s (n=1000000)
               Control:    3 wallclock secs ( 3.01 usr +  0.02 sys =  3.03 CPU) @ 330033.00/s (n=1000000)

Bugs
    Please send bug reports to <bug-class-delegator@rt.cpan.org> or report
    them via the CPAN Request Tracker at
    <http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Class-Delegator>.

Author
    David Wheeler <david@kineticode.com>

See Also
    Class::Delegation
        Damian Conway's brilliant module does ten times what this one
        does--and does it ten times slower.

    Class::Delegate
        Kurt Starsinic's module uses inheritance to manage delegation, and
        has a somewhat more complex interface.

    Class::HasA
        Simon Cozen's delegation module takes the same approach as this
        module, but provides no method for resolving method name clashes the
        way this module's "as" parameter does.

Copyright and License
    Copyright (c) 2005-2008 David Wheeler. Some Rights Reserved.

    This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
    under the same terms as Perl itself.