From: Johann Hibschman <johann@...>
Date: 2001-01-29T06:40:02+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:10037] dumb python-y question

Hi folks,

I'm a long-time python-head, just playing with Ruby for fun, and I was
wondering if there was anything in Ruby similar to the __getattr__
special method in Python.

__getattr__ is called whenever there is an attempt to look up an
attribute that fails.  I use it to implement wrappers over C-objects
in a concise manner when performance isn't important, such as in:

class ObjMirror:
  meths = ["x", "y", "name", "state"]
  def __init__(self, obj):
     self.obj = obj
  def __getattr__(self, attr):
    if attr in self.meths:
      fcn_name = "obj_get_"+attr
      return (getattr(obj_module, fcn_name))(self.obj)

That's just one example.  It comes up every now and then.  Is Ruby
too disciplined for this, or is there a way around that?

--Johann

-- 
Johann Hibschman                           johann@physics.berkeley.edu