Clarify when get/set magic triggers for container types

[perl/modules/Variable-Magic.git] / lib / Variable / Magic.pm

diff --git a/lib/Variable/Magic.pm b/lib/Variable/Magic.pm
index 9e24440331643d8857c1f19824f68e90d9380f6e..1ac6898022a72d1c6d27eba58a6e8efc4588049f 100644 (file)
--- a/lib/Variable/Magic.pm
+++ b/lib/Variable/Magic.pm
@@ -13,13 +13,13 @@ Variable::Magic - Associate user-defined magic to variables from Perl.
 
 =head1 VERSION
 
-Version 0.32
+Version 0.36
 
 =cut
 
 our $VERSION;
 BEGIN {
- $VERSION = '0.32';
+ $VERSION = '0.36';
 }
 
 =head1 SYNOPSIS
@@ -72,8 +72,8 @@ You attach it to variables, not values (as for blessed references).
 
 It doesn't replace the original semantics.
 
-Magic callbacks trigger before the original action take place, and can't prevent it to happen.
-This makes catching individual events easier than with C<tie>, where you have to provide fallbacks methods for all actions by usually inheriting from the correct C<Tie::Std*> class and overriding individual methods in your own class.
+Magic callbacks usually trigger before the original action take place, and can't prevent it to happen.
+This also makes catching individual events easier than with C<tie>, where you have to provide fallbacks methods for all actions by usually inheriting from the correct C<Tie::Std*> class and overriding individual methods in your own class.
 
 =item *
 
@@ -105,13 +105,15 @@ The operations that can be overloaded are :
 
 C<get>
 
-This magic is invoked when the variable is evaluated (does not include array/hash subscripts and slices).
+This magic is invoked when the variable is evaluated.
+It is never called for arrays and hashes.
 
 =item *
 
 C<set>
 
-This one is triggered each time the value of the variable changes (includes array/hash subscripts and slices).
+This one is triggered each time the value of the variable changes.
+It is called for array subscripts and slices, but never for hashes.
 
 =item *
 
@@ -278,7 +280,7 @@ C<fetch>, C<store>, C<exists> and C<delete>
 
 C<$_[2]> is an alias to the current key.
 Nothing prevents you from changing it, but be aware that there lurk dangerous side effects.
-For example, it may righteously be readonly if the key was a bareword.
+For example, it may rightfully be readonly if the key was a bareword.
 You can get a copy instead by passing C<< copy_key => 1 >> to L</wizard>, which allows you to safely assign to C<$_[2]> in order to e.g. redirect the action to another key.
 This however has a little performance drawback because of the copy.
 
@@ -401,7 +403,7 @@ Of course, this example does nothing with the values that are added after the C<
     getdata [$@%&*]var, [$wiz|$sig]
 
 This accessor fetches the private data associated with the magic C<$wiz> (or the signature C<$sig>) in the variable.
-It croaks when C<$wiz> or C<$sig> do not represent a current valid magic object attached to the variable, and returns C<undef> when the wizard has no data constructor or when the data is actually C<undef>.
+It croaks when C<$wiz> or C<$sig> do not represent a valid magic object, and returns an empty list if no such magic is attached to the variable or when the wizard has no data constructor.
 
     # Get the attached data, or undef if the wizard does not attach any.
     my $data = getdata $x, $wiz;