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=encoding utf-8

=for stopwords invocant invocants lexicals unintuitive yada globals

=head1 NAME

Kavorka::Manual::MultiSubs - multi subs and multi methods

=head1 DESCRIPTION

Kavorka supports multi methods and multi subs:

   multi method process (ArrayRef $x) { say "here" }
   multi method process (HashRef $x) { say "there" }
   
   __PACKAGE__->process( [] );    # here
   __PACKAGE__->process( {} );    # there

Multi subs and multi methods must be named (cannot be anonymous
coderefs).

This feature is shared with Perl 6 signatures, though Kavorka does
not support some of Perl 6's more advanced features such as multi
method prototypes. (Though method modifiers should more or less work
with multi methods!) Kavorka includes both type constraints and value
constraints in the dispatch decision, while Perl 6 only uses type
constraints.

=head2 Multi methods versus multi subs

The word after C<multi> (i.e. C<method> in the above example) can be
any Kavorka keyword that has been set up in the current lexical scope,
provided the implementation class provides a non-undef
C<invocation_style> method (see L<Kavorka::Sub>).

If the C<invocation_style> is "fun" (like L<Kavorka::Sub::Fun>), then
the signature of each candidate function in package is checked in the
order in which they were defined, and the first matching candidate is
dispatched to.

If the C<invocation_style> is "method" (like L<Kavorka::Sub::Method>),
then if no successful candidate is found in the current class,
candidates in superclasses are also considered.

=head2 Long names

It is possible to define alternative "long names" for the candidates
of a multi method or multi sub using the C<:long> attribute:

   multi fun process (ArrayRef $x) :long(process_array) {
      say "here";
   }
   
   multi fun process (HashRef $x) :long(process_hash) {
      say "there";
   }
   
   process($a);          # multi dispatch
   process_array($b);    # single dispatch
   process_hash($c);     # single dispatch

(Actually, C<< :long >> isn't a real attribute; we just borrow the
syntax. If you try to use L<attributes>' introspection stuff, you won't
find it.)

Prototypes, subroutine attributes, etc. declared on the multi subs will
appear on the "long name" subs, but not the multi sub.

=head2 Definition at run time

Multi subs and multi methods are added to the symbol at run time
(like methods, see L<Kavorka::Manual::Methods/The Method Name>).

This means that it's possible to partly define a multi sub, call it,
then further define it, before calling it again.

   use Kavorka qw( multi fun );
   use Try::Tiny;
   
   multi fun plus_one (Int $x) { $x + 1 }
   
   try {
      plus_one(41);      # 42
      plus_one(1.1);     # throws
   };
   
   multi fun plus_one (Num $x) { $x + 1 }
   
   plus_one(41);      # 42
   plus_one(1.1);     # 2.1

=head1 BUGS

Please report any bugs to
L<http://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Queue=Kavorka>.

=head1 SEE ALSO

L<Kavorka::Manual>,
L<Kavorka::Manual::Signatures>,
L<Kavorka::Manual::PrototypeAndAttributes>,
L<Kavorka::Manual::Functions>,
L<Kavorka::Manual::Methods>.

=head1 AUTHOR

Toby Inkster E<lt>tobyink@cpan.orgE<gt>.

=head1 COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

This software is copyright (c) 2013-2014 by Toby Inkster.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

=head1 DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES

THIS PACKAGE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

