From: Devin Mullins <twifkak@...>
Date: 2005-06-23T10:45:51+09:00
Subject: Re: [ANN] traits-0.3.0

I'm not sure I'd ever use it, but if you're looking for ideas, I think a 
protocol by which to register observers would be pretty neat.

*reads email about 'observable' library*

I mean, uh, an improvement over the observable library. Something like 
this, perchance:

class C
  has :a, :observers => true
  has :b, :validators => true
end

c = C.new
c.observe(:a) { |old,new|
  blah
}
c.observe(:a) { |old,new|
  additional_blah
}
c.validate(:b) { |old,new|
  blah?
}

If not blah?, then b is not changed.

I'm not sure what it should do, in the observe case, should the block 
throw an exception.

Also, if you could think of a good way to allow the object to internally 
add observers/validators, even if observers isn't true. Ideally, modify 
the protocol to make use of Ruby access control. Maybe give them 
individual private methods, such as observe-a and validate-b. Maybe, 
instead, just make add_observer and add_validator private methods that 
do the same thing.

Or, yeah, I could just direct these suggestions to the author of 
'observable'. ;)

Devin