[ruby-core:68439] [Ruby trunk - Bug #10943] Singleton class expression (class << obj) should make be indivisual namespaces

Issue #10943 has been updated by Benoit Daloze.


Without this change it is possible to determine which CREF or "lexical scope for constant" is used for resolving constants at parse time.
The change implies that `class << expr` now possibly creates multiple such scopes (class/module Name cannot since that Name is static).
I agree it makes sense from a user point of view though.

How will you implement Module.nesting then?
Attach a CREF to each method, which is only attached in the class<<expr body and keep a stack of CREFs when opening/closing class/module?

----------------------------------------
Bug #10943: Singleton class expression (class << obj) should make be indivisual namespaces
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/10943#change-51785

* Author: Koichi Sasada
* Status: Open
* Priority: Normal
* Assignee: Koichi Sasada
* ruby -v: 1.9.0 to trunk
* Backport: 2.0.0: UNKNOWN, 2.1: UNKNOWN, 2.2: UNKNOWN
----------------------------------------
# Abstract

Singleton class scopes should make their own namespace for constants. 
However, Ruby versions from Ruby 1.9.0 do not respect this specification.

# Background and Problem

Singleton class is useful feature to define object specific methods, especially for Class objects.

```ruby
obj = Object.new

# Define something obj's singleton class.
class << obj
  def foo
  end
end

# Idiom to make class methods
class C
  class << self
    def foo      # Define C.foo method
    end
  end
end
```

A `class` syntax has another job: making new namespace, especially for constants.

```ruby
class C
  CONST = 1
  p CONST    #=> 1
  def foo
    p CONST  #=> 1
  end
end
```

Singleton class defintion should also introduce namespace for constant.

```ruby
obj = Object.new
class << obj
  CONST = 1
  def foo
    CONST
  end
end

p obj.foo #=> 1
```

No problem.

Problem is sharing a singleton class definition with multiple objects.

```ruby
objs = []
$i = 0

2.times{
  objs << obj = Object.new
  class << obj
    CONST = ($i += 1)
    def foo
      CONST
    end
  end
}

p objs[0].foo
p objs[1].foo
```

Please think about the answers (outputs).
The above code makes two singleton classes independently.
So that constant namespace should be made for each singleton classes.

In fact, before Ruby 1.9.0, this program outputs "1\n2\n". Maybe your answer is same.

However after Ruby 1.9.0, this program outputs "2\n2\n". This is a bug (not intentional behavior).
JRuby and Rubinius also output not correct answers (interestingly JRuby prints "1\n1").

```
$ ruby -v t.rb
ruby 2.3.0dev (2015-01-27 trunk 49421) [x86_64-linux]
2
2
$ jruby-1.7.19/bin/jruby -v t.rb
jruby 1.7.19 (1.9.3p551) 2015-01-29 20786bd on OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM 1.7.0_75-b13 +jit [linux-amd64]
1
1
$ jruby-9.0.0.0.pre1/bin/jruby -v t.rb
jruby 9.0.0.0.pre1 (2.2.0p0) 2015-01-20 d537cab OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM 24.75-b04 on 1.7.0_75-b13 +jit [linux-amd64]
1
1
$ rbx-2.5.2/bin/rbx -v t.rb
rubinius 2.5.2 (2.1.0 7a5b05b1 2015-01-30 3.4 JI) [x86_64-linux-gnu]
2
2
```

I asked Matz and his answer is "This is a bug behavior".

Moreover, on the independent namespace can make new classes/modules.

```ruby
obj = Object.new
class << obj
  class X
    # make <singleton class::X>
  end
end
```

and it also has problem with multiple definitions.

```ruby
objs = []
$xs = []
$i = 0

2.times{
  objs << obj = Object.new
  class << obj
    CONST = ($i += 1)
    class X
      $xs << self
      CONST = ($i += 1)
      def foo
        CONST
      end
    end

    def x
      X
    end
  end
}

p $xs       #=> [#<Class:0x25d56cc>::X, #<Class:0x25d55f0>::X]
p objs[0].x #=> #<Class:0x25d55f0>::X <- should be #<Class:0x25d56cc>::X
p objs[1].x #=> #<Class:0x25d55f0>::X
p $xs[0].new.foo #=> 4 <- should be 2
p $xs[1].new.foo #=> 4
```

This is a bug.

(BTW, mruby works correctly!)

# Reason of this behavior

On MRI, the reason of this bug is wrong sharing a namespace with 
multiple namespaces. On MRI, the term "CREF" is a name of namespace data 
structure.

Simply saying, I couldn't recognize such case, sharing a namespace by 
multiple namespaces. I was surprising that each singleton class 
expression make their own namespace. So that I store CREF data into each 
local ISeq (method bytecode). It means that each bytecode knows their 
own CREF. I had believed that one bytecode only has one namespace (CREF). 
But this assumption is not correct, as I described above.

# Solution

I decided to renew this feature. ISeq data should not have their own 
CREF, but method only should have. Push CREF onto each method frame 
(value stack, same location of SVAR). There is a (not small) patch and I 
will commit soon for Ruby 2.3.

# Previous versions

This is bug fix, but it changes Ruby semantics largely. I'm not sure how 
to treat it.

Matz said that "we can not expect how affect this change for existing applications, so that no 
need for older versions".

Please discuss about it.

# Acknowledgement

This bug was found during investigating [Bug #10871].





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