From: Ruby Quiz <james@...>
Date: 2004-11-19T23:06:32+09:00
Subject: [QUIZ] Object Browser (#8)

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by Jim Menard

Recently on ruby-talk, itsme123 asked if there was a generic object browser that
will "interactively browse a graph of connected objects by showing their
instance variables and letting me click through to browse".

The quiz challenge: write such a browser. It should be able to start at any
object or, if none is given to it, start at the main object ("self" at the top
level of any Ruby script).

The interface to the browser can be text-based or graphical.

I'm thinking of something like the Squeak Explorer (the new inspector). It's a
window that displays the object with an open/close triangle next to it. Click
the triangle, and the ivars are exposed.

	V  root: an OrderedCollection(a MyClass, a Number)
	   V 1: a MyClass
	    > name: 'the name'
	    > anotherIvar: 42
	   > 2: a Number

That's just one possible UI, of course.

Bonus points for allowing modification of instance variable values and for
allowing inspection of classes (remember, classes are objects, too!).