Mastering Perl for Bioinformatics [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

3.13 Additional Topics

Included in this section are a few more topics you may find useful.

3.13.1 Using Class::Struct to Define Classes

The kind of
simple OO class that I've developed in this chapter
has proved so useful that some clever folks have written a Perl
module Class::Struct that automates the
construction of classes of this type.

It's worth examining
Class::Struct because it can be a great timesaver
for some situations. It's been used to create
classes for many widely used modules. Type:

perldoc Class::Struct

to get the whole story.

3.13.2 Class Inheritance

An
important part of OO programming deals with the use of one class to
help define another. For instance, you may have a class
Protein that defines attributes common to all
proteins. You can then use the Protein class to
define a new class ZincFingers, which perhaps
would have all the attributes of the Protein class
plus some additional attributes relevant to the study of zinc
fingers.

You'll see the use of class inheritance in the next
chapter.

3.13.3 Bioperl

Bioperl is a
collection of modules of intense interest to the Perl bioinformatics
programmer, written mostly in OO style. I'll take a
look at the Bioperl software in Chapter 9.