What are best practices for working with immutability in Moose?

When working with immutability in Moose, there are several best practices you can follow to ensure that your objects are efficient, thread-safe, and adhere to a functional programming paradigm. Here are the key points to consider:

  • Use Immutable Roles: Define your roles as immutable whenever possible to prevent unintended modifications.
  • Leverage 'Immutable' Modifier: Utilize the 'MooseX::Immutable' module to make your classes and roles immutable after construction.
  • Constructor Initialization: Initialize all attributes upfront in the constructor to promote immutability right from the creation of an object.
  • Encourage Value Types: Use value types for attributes, such as simple scalars, arrays, or hashes, instead of complex objects to maintain immutability.
  • Document Side Effects: Clearly document any side effects or restrictions related to mutability in your class's documentation.

Here’s an example of how to create an immutable class with Moose:

package My::ImmutableClass; use Moose; use MooseX::Immutable; has 'name' => ( is => 'ro', isa => 'Str', ); has 'age' => ( is => 'ro', isa => 'Int', ); __PACKAGE__->meta->make_immutable; 1;

best practices Moose immutability MooseX::Immutable object-oriented programming Perl