[cgiapp] RFC: declarative run modes (inspired by Method::Signatures)

[Rhesa Rozendaal]

Hi all,

Thanks to Schwern's recent work on Method::Signatures, something clicked with 
me. It looks like Devel::Declare (dangerous as it is) allows for very pretty 
syntactic sugar, without relying on source filters.


Inspired by Method::Signatures, I've been hacking on something specifically 
for use with cgiapp.

   package My::App;

   use base 'CGI::Application';
   use Runmode::Declare; # proof-of-concept name

   startmode hello { "Hello" }
   runmode world { $self->hello . ", World!" }

Most of the time, you won't need to call setup() anymore, because this takes 
care of setting the start/run modes for you.
Obviously, it checks that you only have one startmode. And it all works fine 
with inheritance too.


Using signatures:

   # script?rm=invite;party_id=42;names=larry;names=guido;names=matz

   runmode invite($party_id, @names) {
     my $party = party_from_id($party_id);
     $party->add_invitees(@names);
   }

   # somewhere else:
   $self->invite( 36, qw(me myself I) );

This pulls the named parameters from @_, or $self->query->param, or $self->param.


Rename the methods (probably silly, but it was easy and fun to try):

   use Runmode::Declare runmode => 'screen', startmode => 'splash';

   splash hello { "Hello" }
   screen world { "World!" }


Is anyone interested in seeing this on CPAN? Or should I just keep this to 
myself, and report back to the asylum? :-)


rhesa