From: Trans <transfire@...>
Date: 2005-02-01T03:20:46+09:00
Subject: Should every method have a module method?

I'm looking at some the Rail's support methods to see what Facets can
gain from it. The following gives me pause (slightly simplified for
your inspection):

| module Inflector
|   extend self
|
|   def pluralize(word)
|     result = word.to_s.dup
|     plural_rules.each do |(rule, replacement)|
|       break if result.gsub!(rule, replacement)
|     end
|     return result
|   end
|   ...
|
|
| class String
|   module Inflections
|     def pluralize
|       Inflector.pluralize(self)
|     end
|   ...
|
| class String
|   include Inflections
| end

Is all this really neccessary? Are these methods really ever usful for
anything else but Strings and derivatives thereof? --What would you
include them in? And would you ever really be more inclined to write:

Inflector.pluralize(a)

over

a.pluralize

Perhaps some people use Ruby in completely non-OOP ways. I guess they
would appriciate this design. If so should that be something we should
always try to accomodate?

Thanks,
T