From: Michael Geary <Mike@...>
Date: 2004-07-04T17:42:43+09:00
Subject: Re: Beginner question

Mikael Larsson wrote:
>
> class String
>     def rot13
>         self.tr!("A-Ma-mN-Zn-z", "N-Zn-zA-Ma-m")
>     end
> end
>
> str = "Micke"
>
> puts "#{str} become #{str.rot13()}" #Micke become Zvpxr
> puts "#{str} become #{str.rot13()}" #Zvpxr become Micke
> puts "#{str} become #{str.swapcase()}" #Micke become mICKE
>
> For me looks like we are doing some implicit inherence here, like this:
>  class String < String
>     def rot13
>         self.tr!("A-Ma-mN-Zn-z", "N-Zn-zA-Ma-m")
>     end
> end
>
> Dose any one have a good explanation?

What you're seeing is the fact that you can reopen a class and add new
methods to it at any time. Your String class doesn't inherit from the
original String class; it *is* the original String class. You're adding a
new method to that class.

Try this example for comparison:

###

class Test
    def a
        123
    end
end

test = Test.new
p test.a

class Test
    def b
        a
    end
end

p test.a
p test.b

###

-Mike