Re: [ ruby-Patches-1939 ] Pathname, totally revamped

Quoting [e-mail], on Mon, May 23, 2005 at 11:06:58PM +0900:
> > If Pathname inherits String, Pathname is-a String.
> > So some people (in some context) that Pathname.new("a") +
> > Pathname.new("b") results in "ab" as String.
> 
> I have explicitly decreed that the behavior of '+' is different.  It's
> documented - people will just have to accept it.  Otherwise, we should

But I don't even know, and can't...

Pathname IS a String, so someone will/should pass it into methods of a
class in my libraries that expects a String. When I want a String, I
make sure it has #to_str, the duck-type way. Then I use it's +, and it
does the wrong thing. If it doesn't behave like a String, then it is not
a string. (if it doesn't waddle like a duck, its not a duck)

Sometimes called Liskov substitution principle.

> never override any method in a subclass, because hey, people might not
> expect different behavior.

You derive to override implementation, not behaviour.

Cheers,
Sam