--- /dev/null
+##############################################################################
+# $URL: http://perlcritic.tigris.org/svn/perlcritic/trunk/Perl-Critic/lib/Perl/Critic/Policy/ValuesAndExpressions/ProhibitLongChainsOfMethodCalls.pm $
+# $Date: 2008-07-03 10:19:10 -0500 (Thu, 03 Jul 2008) $
+# $Author: clonezone $
+# $Revision: 2489 $
+##############################################################################
+
+package Perl::Critic::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitLongChainsOfMethodCalls;
+
+use 5.006001;
+use strict;
+use warnings;
+use Readonly;
+
+use Perl::Critic::Utils qw{ :characters :severities };
+use Perl::Critic::Utils::PPI qw{ is_ppi_expression_or_generic_statement };
+
+use base 'Perl::Critic::Policy';
+
+our $VERSION = '1.088';
+
+#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Readonly::Scalar my $EXPL =>
+ q{Long chains of method calls indicate code that is too tightly coupled};
+
+#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+sub supported_parameters {
+ return (
+ {
+ name => 'max_chain_length',
+ description => 'The number of chained calls to allow.',
+ default_string => '3',
+ behavior => 'integer',
+ integer_minimum => 1,
+ },
+ );
+}
+
+sub default_severity { return $SEVERITY_LOW }
+sub default_themes { return qw( core maintenance ) }
+sub applies_to { return qw{ PPI::Statement }; }
+
+#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+sub _max_chain_length {
+ my ( $self ) = @_;
+
+ return $self->{_max_chain_length};
+}
+
+#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+sub violates {
+ my ( $self, $elem, undef ) = @_;
+
+ return if not is_ppi_expression_or_generic_statement($elem);
+
+ my $chain_length = 0;
+ my $max_chain_length = $self->_max_chain_length();
+ my @children = $elem->schildren();
+ my $child = shift @children;
+
+ while ($child) {
+ # if it looks like we've got a subroutine call, drop the parameter
+ # list.
+ if (
+ $child->isa('PPI::Token::Word')
+ and @children
+ and $children[0]->isa('PPI::Structure::List')
+ ) {
+ shift @children;
+ }
+
+ if (
+ $child->isa('PPI::Token::Word')
+ or $child->isa('PPI::Token::Symbol')
+ ) {
+ if ( @children ) {
+ if ( $children[0]->isa('PPI::Token::Operator') ) {
+ if ( q{->} eq $children[0]->content() ) {
+ $chain_length++;
+ shift @children;
+ }
+ }
+ elsif ( not $children[0]->isa('PPI::Token::Structure') ) {
+ $chain_length = 0;
+ }
+ }
+ }
+ else {
+ if ($chain_length > $max_chain_length) {
+ return
+ $self->violation(
+ "Found method-call chain of length $chain_length.",
+ $EXPL,
+ $elem,
+ );
+ }
+
+ $chain_length = 0;
+ }
+
+ $child = shift @children;
+ }
+
+ if ($chain_length > $max_chain_length) {
+ return
+ $self->violation(
+ "Found method-call chain of length $chain_length.",
+ $EXPL,
+ $elem,
+ );
+ }
+
+ return;
+}
+
+
+1;
+
+__END__
+
+#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+=pod
+
+=for stopwords MSCHWERN
+
+=head1 NAME
+
+Perl::Critic::Policy::ValuesAndExpressions::ProhibitLongChainsOfMethodCalls - Long chains of method calls indicate tightly coupled code.
+
+
+=head1 AFFILIATION
+
+This Policy is part of the core L<Perl::Critic> distribution.
+
+
+=head1 DESCRIPTION
+
+A long chain of method calls usually indicates that the code knows too
+much about the interrelationships between objects. If the code is
+able to directly navigate far down a network of objects, then when the
+network changes structure in the future, the code will need to be
+modified to deal with the change. The code is too tightly coupled and
+is brittle.
+
+
+ $x = $y->a; #ok
+ $x = $y->a->b; #ok
+ $x = $y->a->b->c; #questionable, but allowed by default
+ $x = $y->a->b->c->d; #not ok
+
+
+=head1 CONFIGURATION
+
+This policy has one option: C<max_chain_length> which controls how far
+the code is allowed to navigate. The default value is 3.
+
+
+=head1 AUTHOR
+
+Elliot Shank C<< <perl@galumph.com> >>
+
+
+=head1 COPYRIGHT
+
+Copyright (c) 2007-2008 Elliot Shank. All rights reserved.
+
+This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+it under the same terms as Perl itself. The full text of this license
+can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module.
+
+=cut
+
+# Local Variables:
+# mode: cperl
+# cperl-indent-level: 4
+# fill-column: 78
+# indent-tabs-mode: nil
+# c-indentation-style: bsd
+# End:
+# ex: set ts=8 sts=4 sw=4 tw=78 ft=perl expandtab shiftround :