The p6opaque Responder Interface is the default responder for all Perl 6 objects.

Basics

This is a prototype-based OO system. It means that a class is simply an undefined object. The following assumptions help to understand it:

• $object.WHAT() === $prototype
• $prototype.WHAT() === $prototype
• $object.HOW() === $prototype.HOW()
• $object.clone.WHAT() === $object.WHAT()
• $object.clone.HOW() === $object.HOW()
• $prototype.clone.HOW() !=== $prototype.HOW()

This stablishes the following relationships:

• Every object have a prototype
• Every object is defined
• Every prototype is undefined
• A prototype is its own prototype
• Every prototype have its own metaclass instance
• When cloning an object, the prototype information is cloned, therefore it points to the same prototype.
• When cloning a prototype, the metaclass information is cloned and it becomes a new prototype, therefore it has a different metaclass instance.

Implementation

• Both the prototype and the object are objects
• An object is composed by slots
• the slots in the object store what is described by the prototype
• the slots in the prototype describes the prototype