NAME

ValueTypeCache - A role to cache Value Type classes

SYNOPSIS

use ValueTypeCache;

sub id(%h --> Str:D) {
    %h<x> //= 0;
    %h<y> //= 0;
    "%h<x>,%h<y>"
}

class Point does ValueTypeCache[&id] {
    has $.x;
    has $.y;
}

say Point.new.WHICH;  # Point|0,0

# fill a bag with random Points
my $bag = bag (^1000).map: {
  Point.new: x => (-10..10).roll, y => (-10..10).roll
}
say $bag.elems;  # less than 1000

DESCRIPTION

The ValueTypeCache role mixes the logic of creating a proper ValueType class and making sure that each unique ValueType only exists once in memory, into a class.

The role takes a Callable parameterization to indicate how a unique ID should be created from the parameters given (as a hash) with the call to the new method. You can also adapt the given hash making sure any default values are properly applied. If there's already an object created with the returned ID, then no new object will be created but the one from the cache will be returned.

A class is considered to be a value type if the .WHICH method returns an object of the ValueObjAt class: that then indicates that objects that return the same WHICH value, are in fact identical and can be used interchangeably.

This is specifically important when using set operators (such as (elem), or Sets, Bags or Mixes, or any other functionality that is based on the === operator functionality, such as unique and squish.

The format of the value that is being returned by WHICH is only valid during a run of a process. So it should not be stored in any permanent medium.

AUTHOR

Elizabeth Mattijsen [email protected]

Source can be located at: https://github.com/lizmat/ValueTypeCache . Comments and Pull Requests are welcome.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright 2020, 2021 Elizabeth Mattijsen

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the Artistic License 2.0.