Ruby Method Signatures (was Re: Multiton in standard library)

On 3/19/07, TRANS <[e-mail]> wrote:

> Which reminds me, it would be nice of Method could return a
> representation of a methods signature. I've run into this need
> elsewhere too.

Thinking about this a bit, I'm not sure how much more information a
ruby method signature would have beyond the arity.

all ruby methods return an object.
all the parameters are objects.
The parameter names don't seem to have any meaning to the caller.
All methods can be called with a block (although it can be ignored,
but then any other parameters can be ignored as well).  So it seems to
me that theres no difference between
  def a(&block)
and
  def a

The only information that I can think of that arity doesn't give you
is in the case like:

   class C
       def a(*args)
       end

       def b(c=1)
       end
   end

both methods have an arity of -1 which indicates that there are no
required parameters, however they differ in that C#a will accept any
number of arguments, and C#b won't.


So just what should a Ruby method signature have?

-- 
Rick DeNatale

My blog on Ruby
http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/