From: Pit Capitain <pit@...>
Date: 2003-08-21T16:57:20+09:00
Subject: Re: differences between Module and Class ?

On 21 Aug 2003 at 10:51, Mathieu Bouchard wrote:

> I'm trying to figure out the feasibility of
> merging the Module class with the Class class, with all the consequent
> changes, and with as much backward compatibility as possible.

> (...)

Mathieu, could you tell us what you are trying to achieve? I suppose 
you want to unify some core Ruby concepts, but I could be wrong or 
only grasp a part of your ideas.

Nonetheless, I find this very interesting and worthwhile, but doubt 
that such a change would ever be incorporated in the language. The 
distinction between classes and modules (not the namespace usage, but 
the mixins) seems to be too fundamental a concept in Ruby. So maybe a 
merge might only happen, if at all, in the interpreter.

Do you think it's possible in current Ruby to replace every 
class/module design into one which uses only modules for inheritance 
and classes only to create instances? Can you all think of something 
that wouldn't be possible in such a design?

Regards,
Pit