From: Sean O'Dell <sean@...>
Date: 2004-06-06T14:06:24+09:00
Subject: Re: How to ducktype a Hash?

On Saturday 05 June 2004 20:23, Dave Thomas wrote:
> On Jun 5, 2004, at 19:24, Sean O'Dell wrote:
> > No, it IS my problem.  My code quietly does some really undesired
> > things when
> > non-hash-like objects get to this one point in code.  I hate this
> > attitude
> > about typing.  I know you mean well, and it's been talked out to
> > death, but I
> > don't buy the whole thing about "if it has the methods, it must be
> > fine."
> > It's clearly NOT fine.  If an array or a string, both which have the []
> > methods I need, get to this one place, I drop a whole branch of data
> > being
> > passed around.
>
> Then you need to test to make sure your parameter is a Hash. Duck
> typing isn't applicable, as your code is coupled to the behavior of a
> particular class.

The objects are not always a Hash per se, just objects with hash-like 
functionality.  But, as I said, other objects can slip in too, like strings 
and arrays, which have [] and []= methods, but which don't act like hashes at 
all.

	Sean O'Dell