HaloO, from the recent threads 'class interface of roles', 'set operations for roles' and 'signature subtyping and role merging' I wonder how typish roles actually are. Some seem to consider roles as lightweight particles that serve to compose classes. I see them as the heavyweights in the type department. Doing a role is like a contract about certain functionality. So, what does @Larry think?
I know that S12 states "The type system of Perl consists of roles, classes, and subtypes" but I don't have a clear picture of the inner workings or the formal model of this type system. E.g. what actually constitutes a type? How are the classes related to types? There is this fuzzy concept that a class is also a role of the same name as far as typing is concerned. How is the subtyping relation defined? Regards, TSa. --
