[ruby-core:21399] Proposal: Module#copy_method

I'd like it to be possible to copy methods from one module to another. The
rationale is that this feature would make it possible to modify existing
methods without being forced to resort to aliasing. Here's an implementation
that works on 1.8 and 1.9:
static VALUE copy_method(VALUE self, VALUE klass, VALUE symbol) {
  ID id = rb_to_id(symbol);
  NODE *node = NULL;
  st_table *other_method_table = RCLASS(klass)->m_tbl;
  st_table *method_table = RCLASS(self)->m_tbl;

  if(st_lookup(other_method_table, id, (void *)&node)) {
    st_insert(method_table, (st_data_t)id, (st_data_t)node);
    return (Qtrue);
  } else {
    rb_raise(rb_eRuntimeError, "No such method `%s' on %s", rb_id2name(id),
STR2CSTR(rb_mod_name(klass)));
  }
}

void Init_copy_method() {
  VALUE c = rb_cObject;
  c = rb_const_get(c,rb_intern("Module"));
  rb_define_method(c, "copy_method", copy_method, 2);
}

And the ruby code:

module TrackAddedMethods
  def method_added(meth)
    @__added_methods ||= []
    @__added_methods << meth
  end

  def __added_methods
    @__added_methods
  end
end

class Module
  def __move_to_module(*meth_names)
    me = self
    mod = Module.new do
      meth_names.each do |name|
        copy_method me, name
      end
    end
    meth_names.each do |name|
      remove_method name
    end
    include mod
  end

  def chain(&blk)
    mod = Module.new do
      extend TrackAddedMethods
    end
    mod.class_eval(&blk)
    __move_to_module(*mod.__added_methods)
    include mod
  end
end

It would be used like:

class Bar
  def foo
    1
  end

  chain do
    def foo
      super + 1
    end
  end
end

This particular Ruby implementation is just one option, but the point is
that having the generic ability to move methods around would be powerful.

-- 
Yehuda Katz
Developer | Engine Yard
(ph) 718.877.1325