From: george.marrows@...
Date: 2003-12-02T01:21:19+09:00
Subject: Re: Constants, class variables and the cbase field

> g> the result is counter-intuitive. My guess would have been 
> that class
> g> B::C is strictly short-hand for class B; class C, with the 
> same constant
> g> lookups. 
> 
>  Well, imagine that someone write
> 
>    D = B::C
> 
>    class D
>    end
> 
>  how ruby can find that D was B::C and make it work like 
> class B; class C

Hmm, well .. I didn't know you could do that :)  But anyway .. the subtext
of my original post was "why doesn't a class simply record who its nesting
parent is?" If this info was available, then D (= B::C) knows that its
parent is B and lookup can go C, B, A.  

There are currently 3 class-related hierarchies in Ruby: inheritance, class
nesting and source layout. I guess what I'm getting at is: let's forget
about source layout and just use the first two. Doubtless there are
subtleties that screw this up ..

-- George