From: Patrick Fernie <patrick.fernie@...>
Date: 2005-08-03T01:40:08+09:00
Subject: Re: my map vs. collect bone

Regardless of the fact I like #map more than #collect, here's my
thought on maintaing both map_ and collect_: why not use a little
meta-programming? I'm not at my dev machine atm, so no ruby, but
generally:

module Enumerable
  def Enumerable.method_added(meth)
    if meth.to_s =~ /^collect_/
      alias_method meth.to_s.sub(/^collect/, 'map').to_sym, meth
    end
  end
end

module Enumerable
  def collect_test
    puts "This is the new method"
  end
end

a = []
a.collect_test #=> "This is the new method"
a.map_test    #=> "This is the new method"

Or, you could use method_missing, which will help when defining
methods in classes including the module (the above case only works for
methods defined in the Enumerable module, I believe (away from Ruby
atm, so correct me if I'm wrong)):

module Enumerable
  def method_missing(meth, *args)
    if meth.to_s =~ /^map_/
      self.send(meth.to_s.sub(/^map/, 'collect').to_sym, *args)
    else
      NoMethodError.new(meth.to_s)
    end
  end
end

class Array
  def collect_another(str)
    puts "Another: #{str}"
  end
end

a = []
a.collect_another("yep!") #=> "Another: yep!"
a.map_another("also yep!") #=> "Another: also yep!"

I like this method less because then map_<whatever> doesn't show up in
documentation and when looking into the object. Also, it seems gragile
to me; somebody who knows more will probably correct me ;).

-P

On 8/2/05, David A. Black <dblack@wobblini.net> wrote:
> Hi --
> 
> On Wed, 3 Aug 2005, Christian Neukirchen wrote:
> 
> > "Trans" <transfire@gmail.com> writes:
> >
> >> The point is, can we just settle on one or the other for a future
> >> version of Ruby? Although I prefer 'collect', I don't really care
> >> which. Just pick one.
> >
> > I prefer #map because I do more Lisp than Smalltalk. :-)
> 
> I prefer to keep both because I do more Ruby than Lisp or Smalltalk
> :-)
> 
> 
> David
> 
> --
> David A. Black
> dblack@wobblini.net
>