Class vs. Object Methods

Compare:

         Person->new();         Person::new('Person');
        $hamlet->age();         Person::age($hamlet);

         Person->new(...);      Person::new('Person', ...);
        $hamlet->age(...);      Person::age($hamlet, ...);

The -> operator is doing almost the same thing in each case
Perl does not distinguish between class and object methods
It's not unusual to have a method that can be called both ways:

        sub new {
          my $self = shift;
          my $class = (ref $self) || $self;
          my $new = (ref $self) ? {%$self} : {};
          ...
          bless $new, $class;
        }

        # Call this as either of:
        Person->new(...);
        $p->new();