From: Sean O'Dell <sean@...>
Date: 2004-06-26T01:44:37+09:00
Subject: Re: Is it considered Harmful?

On Friday 25 June 2004 08:57, Dave Thomas wrote:
> On Jun 25, 2004, at 10:48, Sean O'Dell wrote:
> >>  If you think that the possiblity to crash ruby is not a technical
> >> reason,
> >>  then you are right it don't exist solid technical reason.
> >
> > You're wrong on that.  It wouldn't crash Ruby to change the class of an
> > object.  Objects already change their class when you turn them into
> > singletons.
> > Changing it to any class of your choosing would be even simpler,
> > since creating a singleton involves inheriting all the old class
> > methods;
> > changing a class wouldn't require all that work.
>
> Singletons are effectively subclasses of the original.
>
> irb(main):001:0> a = /cat/
> => /cat/
> irb(main):002:0> def a.speak; "meiow"; end
> irb(main):005:0> a.speak
> => "meiow"
> irb(main):006:0> a.class
> => Regexp
>
> How would you handle
>      a = /cat/
>      a.class = File
>      a.read
>
> It's a brave man that calls Guy 'wrong,' so I'm looking forward to
> seeing your implementation of this.

How is that any different from:

class Regexp
  include Enumerable
end

a = /cat/
a.each

You can do all sorts of crazy things in Ruby. Buyer beware.  Enter at your own 
risk.

	Sean O'Dell