Change of Implementation

• Why use $hamlet->name when you could use $hamelet->{NAME} directly?

• The method version allows a change of the underlying implementation

• For example, we could make $hamlet into an anonymous array instead:

        sub new {
          my ($class) = @_;
          bless [], $class;
        }

        sub name {
          my $self = shift;
          if (@_) { $self->[0] = shift }
          return $self->[0];
        }

• This uses less space and time

• If the program has $hamlet->{NAME}, it will break

• Using the specified interface allows implementation changes

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Copyright © 2001 M-J. Dominus