Marcelo Alvim
4/16/2007 9:35:00 PM
Hi,
Well, I'm new to Ruby (I've been working and playing with it for the
last 6 months only), and
I know there's probably another way in which this could work, but
somehow I feel like the
code below should work. Let's see what you guys think about it.
The idea is making a copy of a class object, changing it and then
restoring it back to what it was after playing with the new stuff I
added. It should go somewhat like this:
OldArray = Array.dup
# => OldArray
class Array
def my_method; "My Method"; end
end
# => nil
[].my_method
# => "My Method"
x = Array.new
# => []
x.my_method
# => "My Method"
### Switch back
Array = OldArray.dup
(irb):9: warning: already initialized constant Array
# => Array
x.my_method
# => "My Method"
(Ok, now why did that work? Maybe "x" is still using the modified Array class?)
[].my_method
# => "My Method"
(Same thing here, it seems)
[1, 2, 3].my_method
# => "My Method"
(Hmmmm, let's try something different)
x = Array.new
# => []
x.my_method
NoMethodError: undefined method `my_method' for []:Array
from (irb):14
from :0
(Ok, so new instances only? Is this weird at all, or is this the way
it's supposed to work?)
I'm asking these questions out of real lack of knowledge, and I REALLY
don't suppose
something should change in order to make this work. I'm just trying to
understand how
Ruby does all this stuff.
Thank you in advance,
Marcelo Alvim.