From: dave.burt@...
Date: 2005-05-06T11:04:29+09:00
Subject: Re: object reference handle (like perl's reference to scalar)

To me, this looks more Rubyish. Is there some benefit I'm missing in
your pulling variable names out of the closure like you do there, Eric?
If it's all the same, why not just have the object pass itself into a
reference constructor (as my Object#ref does)?
# ref.rb
#
# For those times you need an extra level of indirection.
#
# Example:
#   def swap(a,b)
#     tmp = a[]
#     a[] = b[]
#     b[] = tmp
#   end
#
#   swap(x.ref, y.ref) # convert x and y to references then swap them
#
Ref = DelegateClass(Object) unless Object.const_defined? :Ref
class Ref
  # Dereference (get the referred-to value)
  alias deref __getobj__
  # Call with no index to dereference
  def [](*args)
    if args.empty?
      __getobj__
    else
      super
    end
  end
  # Set value (change the reference to point at something else)
  def ref=(val) __setobj__(val) end
  # Call with no index to assign a new value
  def []=(*args)
    if args.size == 1
      __setobj__(args[0])
    else
      super
    end
  end
end
class Object
  # Make a reference
  def ref
    Ref.new(self)
  end
end