From: Michael Neumann <mneumann@...>
Date: 2004-07-30T23:48:40+09:00
Subject: Re: Forward references?

Lloyd Zusman wrote:
> Is there a way to define forward references to functions?  Due to my own
> personal eccentricities, I like to have the main body of a program
> appear at the top of its source file, and the functions it uses at the
> end.
> 
> By "define forward reference", I mean something analogous to the
> following C construct:
> 
>   static char* foo();  /* forward reference */
>   static char* bar();  /* forward reference */
> 
>   main () {
>     printf("%s\n", foo());
>     printf("%s\n", bar());
>     exit(0);
>   }
> 
>   char* foo() {
>     return ("foo");
>   }
> 
>   char* bar() {
>     return ("bar");
>   }
> 
> If I could make use of forward references in ruby, the above program
> could look something like this:
> 
>   # somehow, define a forward reference to function foo()
> 
>   # somehow, define a forward reference to function bar()
> 
>   # program starts here
>   x = foo()
>   y = bar()
>   puts x
>   puts y
>   exit(0)

Wrap this code into a END block:

END {
   x = foo
   y = bar
   ...
}

Regards,

   Michael