C<Class::Struct> exports a single function, C<struct>.
Given a list of element names and types, and optionally
a class name, C<struct> creates a Perl 5 class that implements
a "struct-like" data structure.

The new class is given a constructor method, C<new>, for creating
struct objects.

Each element in the struct data has an accessor method, which is
used to assign to the element and to fetch its value.  The
default accessor can be overridden by declaring a C<sub> of the
same name in the package.  (See Example 2.)

Each element's type can be scalar, array, hash, or class.

=head2 The C<struct()> function

The C<struct> function has three forms of parameter-list.

    struct( CLASS_NAME => [ ELEMENT_LIST ]);
    struct( CLASS_NAME => { ELEMENT_LIST });
    struct( ELEMENT_LIST );

The first and second forms explicitly identify the name of the
class being created.  The third form assumes the current package
name as the class name.

An object of a class created by the first and third forms is
based on an array, whereas an object of a class created by the
second form is based on a hash. The array-based forms will be
somewhat faster and smaller; the hash-based forms are more
flexible.

The class created by C<struct> must not be a subclass of another
class other than C<UNIVERSAL>.

It can, however, be used as a superclass for other classes. To facilitate
this, the generated constructor method uses a two-argument blessing.
Furthermore, if the class is hash-based, the key of each element is
prefixed with the class name (see I<Perl Cookbook>, Recipe 13.12).

A function named C<new> must not be explicitly defined in a class
created by C<struct>.

The I<ELEMENT_LIST> has the form

    NAME => TYPE, ...

Each name-type pair declares one element of the struct. Each
element name will be defined as an accessor method unless a
method by that name is explicitly defined; in the latter case, a
warning is issued if the warning flag (B<-w>) is set.

=head2 Class Creation at Compile Time

C<Class::Struct> can create your class at compile time.  The main reason
for doing this is obvious, so your class acts like every other class in
Perl.  Creating your class at compile time will make the order of events
similar to using any other class ( or Perl module ).

There is no significant speed gain between compile time and run time
class creation, there is just a new, more standard order of events.

=head2 Element Types and Accessor Methods

The four element types -- scalar, array, hash, and class -- are
represented by strings -- C<'$'>, C<'@'>, C<'%'>, and a class name --
optionally preceded by a C<'*'>.

The accessor method provided by C<struct> for an element depends
on the declared type of the element.

=over 4

=item Scalar (C<'$'> or C<'*$'>)

The element is a scalar, and by default is initialized to C<undef>
(but see L<Initializing with new>).

The accessor's argument, if any, is assigned to the element.

If the element type is C<'$'>, the value of the element (after
assignment) is returned. If the element type is C<'*$'>, a reference
to the element is returned.

=item Array (C<'@'> or C<'*@'>)

The element is an array, initialized by default to C<()>.

With no argument, the accessor returns a reference to the
element's whole array (whether or not the element was
specified as C<'@'> or C<'*@'>).

With one or two arguments, the first argument is an index
specifying one element of the array; the second argument, if
present, is assigned to the array element.  If the element type
is C<'@'>, the accessor returns the array element value.  If the
element type is C<'*@'>, a reference to the array element is
returned.