From: Sean O'Dell <sean@...>
Date: 2004-06-07T02:25:35+09:00
Subject: Re: How to ducktype a Hash?

On Sunday 06 June 2004 05:33, Jeff Mitchell wrote:
> I would certainly not advocate checking kind_of? Map.  Instead, one blindly
> calls #fetch and #store and then relies on ruby to raise an exception when
> a method doesn't exist.

The problem is, it's not a matter of whether or not the methods exist, it's a 
matter of what they do.  Methods exist everywhere that do completely 
different things, and which take completely different arguments.  Simply 
identifying a method's existence or non-existence, whether through 
pre-checking or allowing an exception to occur, is not enough.  Method 
existence is no guarantee of functionality, nor is it even a guarantee of a 
proper exception from unexpected behavior.  Often, unexpected behavior is 
quietly skipped past.

	Sean O'Dell