<P>Will also initialize the %FIELDS hash if one of the base classes has
it. Multiple inheritance of %FIELDS is not supported. The 'base'
pragma will croak if multiple base classes have a %FIELDS hash. See
<A HREF="../lib/fields.html">the fields manpage</A> for a description of this feature.</P>
<P>When strict 'vars' is in scope <EM>base</EM> also let you assign to @ISA
without having to declare @ISA with the 'vars' pragma first.</P>
<P>If any of the base classes are not loaded yet, <EM>base</EM> silently
<A HREF="../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_require"><CODE>require</CODE></A>s them. Whether to <A HREF="../lib/Pod/perlfunc.html#item_require"><CODE>require</CODE></A> a base class package is
determined by the absence of a global $VERSION in the base package.
If $VERSION is not detected even after loading it, <base> will
define $VERSION in the base package, setting it to the string
<CODE>-1, defined by base.pm</CODE>.</P>
<P>
<HR>
<H1><A NAME="history">HISTORY</A></H1>
<P>This module was introduced with Perl 5.004_04.</P>