$Id: README,v 1.6 2006-02-05 00:11:42 ian Exp $

NAME
    Acme::Damn - 'Unbless' Perl objects.

SYNOPSIS
      use Acme::Damn;

      my $ref = ... some reference ...
      my $obj = bless $ref , 'Some::Class';
  
      ... do something with your object ...

         $ref = damn $obj;   # recover the original reference (unblessed)

      ... neither $ref nor $obj are Some::Class objects ...

INSTALLATION

    To install this module type the following:

      perl Makefile.PL
      make
      make test
      make install

    Acme::Damn uses XS to access the internals of Perl for it's magic, and
    therefore must be compiled to be installed. Also, for testing,
    Acme::Damn relies on Test::More and Test::Exception.

DESCRIPTION
    Acme::Damn provides a single routine, damn(), which takes a blessed
    reference (a Perl object), and *unblesses* it, to return the original
    reference. I can't think of any reason why you might want to do this,
    but just because it's of no use doesn't mean that you shouldn't be able
    to do it.

  EXPORT
    By default, Acme::Damn exports the method damn() into the current
    namespace. Aliases for damn() (see below) may be imported upon request.

  Methods
    damn *object*
        damn() accepts a single blessed reference as its argument, and
        returns that reference unblessed. If *object* is not a blessed
        reference, then damn() will "die" with an error.

  Method Aliases
    Not everyone likes to damn the same way or in the same language, so
    Acme::Damn offers the ability to specify any alias on import, provided
    that alias is a valid Perl subroutine name (i.e. all characters match
    "\w").

      use Acme::Damn qw( unbless );
      use Acme::Damn qw( foo );
      use Acme::Damn qw( unblessthyself );
      use Acme::Damn qw( recant );

    Version 0.02 supported a defined list of aliases, and this has been
    replaced in v0.03 by the ability to import any alias for "damn()".

WARNING
    Just as "bless" doesn't call an object's initialisation code, "damn"
    doesn't invoke an object's "DESTROY" method. For objects that need to be
    "DESTROY"ed, either don't "damn" them, or call "DESTROY" before
    judgement is passed.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
    Thanks to Claes Jacobsson <claes@surfar.nu> for suggesting the use of
    aliases.

SEE ALSO
    bless, perlboot, perltoot, perltooc, perlbot, perlobj.

AUTHOR
    Ian Brayshaw, <ian@onemore.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
    Copyright 2003-2006 Ian Brayshaw

    This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
    under the same terms as Perl itself.

