From: Brian Candler <B.Candler@...>
Date: 2004-09-19T01:21:24+09:00
Subject: Re: Automatic class conversion / function overloading

On Sat, Sep 18, 2004 at 12:17:57AM +0900, Markus wrote:
> > Btw: you know that there are classes Rational, Complex etc. already, do
> > you?
> 
>      Yes.  But it's a convenient context for discussing the real issues
> (why overloading isn't as needed in ruby, how duck typing reduces the
> need for class-tests, etc.) since it's reasonable to assume that
> everyone knows what the semantics _should_be_ and thus we can focus on
> how they are best implemented.

If you want to see an example of Ruby idiom in practice, just see
/usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/rational.rb (or wherever it is on your system)

The stuff with #coerce I never 100% understood, but then I've never had to
use it for any of my own classes. I've only ever seen it used for the
various different ways of representing numbers.

Regards,

Brian.