Template Toolkit (and several other modules) use this idiom:
sub new {
my $class = shift;
# allow hash ref as first argument, otherwise fold args into hash
my $config = defined $_[0] && UNIVERSAL::isa($_[0], 'HASH') ?
shift : { @_ };
..
}
Which lets you do any of these:
my $foo = Foo->new(ONE => 1, TWO => 2);
my $bar = Foo->new({ONE => 1, TWO => 2});
my $baz = Foo->new(\%opts);
This is very convenient for when you've got a large hashref of options
and don't want to unroll it for passing to a method.
--
(darren)
