From: Dave Thomas <Dave@...>
Date: 2001-05-10T14:03:37+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:14935] Re: Class/Module Information

matz@zetabits.com (Yukihiro Matsumoto) writes:

> So there're three separate (but related) possible RCRs:
> 
>   Module#included_modules(includeIndirect=true)
>   Module#constants(includeSuper=true)
>   Module#class_variables(includeSuper=true)

Before we go too far down this road, is it possible that there's
another way of doing this altogether?

Say we had Object#reflection, which returned an object of type
ObjectReflector. This could provide all the various introspection
methods in one tidy place

    ObjectReflector#own_instance_methods
                    all_instance_methods
                    singleton_methods
                    own_instance_variables
                    all_instance_variables
                       :        :

and so on. This would work for classes and modules too.

Then we could also have Method#reflection -> MethodReflector, which
could give us

   MethodReflector#arity
                  #number_of_required_args
                  #has_optional_arg?
                  #has_block_arg?
                      :       :

and so on.

This seems tidier to me, and sets a precedent should we ever allow
other forms of reflection.


Dave