Intermediate Perl

11.10. Where We Are So Far...

So far, we've used the method arrow syntax:

Class->method(@args);

or the equivalent:

my $beast = 'Class'; $beast->method(@args);

which constructs an argument list of:

('Class', @args)

and attempts to invoke:

Class::method('Class', @args);

However, if Perl doesn't find Class::method, it examines @Class::ISA (recursively) to locate a package that does indeed contain method and then invokes that version instead.

Chapter 12 shows how to distinguish the individual animals by giving them associated properties, called instance variables.