From: dave.burt@...
Date: 2005-05-06T15:04:25+09:00
Subject: Re: object reference handle (like perl's reference to scalar)

This is not possible, unfortunately.
In Ruby,
    fname = "Eric"
is just an assignment to a local variable. There are no method calls
involved, and nothing to intercept.

You can, of course, go even further and remove the =, leaving:
    fname "Eric"
Reminds me of Traits (nee Attributes).
In this case, "fname" would be a method, which means it would not be an
object. You could create a thing like this using code like the
following:

def define_attribute(method_name)
  singleton_class = (class << self; self end)
  singleton_class.instance_eval do
    define_method method_name do |*args|
        if args.empty?
          instance_variable_get("@#{method_name}")
        else
instance_variable_set("@#{method_name}", *args)
        end
    end
  end
  singleton_class
end

define_attribute :fname  #=> #<Class:#<Object:0x...>>
fname "Eric"  #=> "Eric"
fname  #=> "Eric"

# or even on an object, OpenStruct-ishly:
foo = "bar"
foo.define_attribute "baz"  #=> #<Class:#<String:0x...>>
foo.baz 42  #=> 42
foo.baz  #=> 42

But I digress wildly, I fear. Back to references, here's your example
worked with my above ref.rb

# Please add the following line to the top of ref.rb:
require 'delegate'

# on with the example
require 'ref'

hacker = ["bot","pen","a",5,10].map{|x|x.ref}.ref

name  = hacker[0..2]
fname = name[0]
lname = name[1]
mname = name[2]

height = hacker[3..4]
feet   = height[0]      # I corrected an off-by one here
inches = height[1]      # and here

fname[] = "Eric"        # or like this: fname.ref = "Eric"
lname[] = "Mahurin"
mname[] = "?"

feet[]   = 6
inches[] = 5

p name    #=> ["Eric","Mahurin","?"]
p height  #=> [6,5]
p hacker  #=> ["Eric","Mahurin","?",6,5]