[ruby-core:61882] [ruby-trunk - Feature #9704] Refinements as files instead of modules

Issue #9704 has been updated by Thomas Sawyer.


Yes, the transition from monkey-patching to refinements is a major part of the intention. 

But I also do not expect monkey-patching to ever completely go away. (Do you?) Monkey patching is more convenient, in that it can be done via one require for an entire project, where as refining has to specified per-file. So there will be cases where monkey-patching is still preferred. 

Besides personal projects and small end-user tools, a good example, I think, is ActiveSupport. While some of it could be used as refinements, I suspect much of it will remain core extensions b/c it represents Rails' DSL, so to speak. And the parts that can become refinements, I would imagine users would still have an option to load them in as extensions.

Even so, I think the main intent is to ask the question: Do refinements *need* to be modules? If there is no compelling reason for them to be so, then making refinements file-based would simplify reuse and allow us to shed unnecessary boiler-plate.


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Feature #9704: Refinements as files instead of modules
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/9704#change-46094

* Author: Thomas Sawyer
* Status: Open
* Priority: Normal
* Assignee: 
* Category: core
* Target version: Next Major
----------------------------------------
If refinements are to remain file-scoped, then it would be more convenient if `using` worked at the file level, akin to `require`, rather than behave like a module `include`. For instance, instead of:

~~~
# foo.rb
module Foo
  refine String do
    def some_method
      ...
    end
  end
end
~~~

~~~
require 'foo'
using Foo
~~~

We could do:

~~~
# foo.rb
class String
  def some_method
    ...
  end
end
~~~

~~~
using 'foo'
~~~

This would make `require` and `using`, in a certain sense, *polymorphic* --if we `require` it will extend the classes directly, but if `using` then they will be refined instead.




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