[simcop2387]

A small correction there, you aren't making them public by putting them in EXPORT. What you're doing is actually using another module to munge the namespace that used your class. In fact by default all functions defined in a package that is used as a class are public by default.

And here's the boiler plate for more modern perl:

    package MyClass;
    use Moose;
    1;

You can define properties of the class using has 'property'; This will setup any accessors and also handle initializing them in the constructor that's created for you by default.

[mrottenkolber]

Why do you need to return 1 though? That seems pretty ridiculous.

[bmn_]

Because that's how [require](http://p3rl.org/require) works:

> to indicate successful execution of any initialization code

Other dynamic languages have problems with "half"-loaded code. This mechanism is a defense against that.

[jjn1056]

It has uses. Sometimes you can also use it to write code that runs like a script if called in script mode (what some people are calling a modulino. If you really hate it there's a number of packages on CPAN to make it disappear.

Also new versions of Perl allow you to define a package scope and skip the '1;' Most Perl programmers don't use this yet since the benefit is very small and the cost is losing some back compatibility. Maybe in a few years it will be more common:

package MyApp::Web { ... }

Like a lot of things in Perl it has a use that might not be immediately evident. Its also possible a more elegant solution could have been found as well. Generally when I write real code I never notice it (the 1; is drowned out by docs and real code.

[gamache]

Technically, you don't need to return 1; you need to return a truthy value. The string "Perl syntax is dumb and hateful" works just as well.