From: Bob Hutchison <hutch@...>
Date: 2005-09-27T07:26:08+09:00
Subject: Is there an issue with a library extending Object?

Hi,

I am writing a library for Ruby programmers. What are the issues with  
adding methods to the Object class? I'm not talking about the  
practicalities of it -- those are as easy as could be and work. What  
I am concerned with is the reaction a programmer using that library  
might have. The benefit is a simplification of a particularly error- 
prone, tedious, ugly, and repetitive test in the library user's code  
(that might not show up in unit tests). I don't know what the  
disadvantages might be, name conflict I suppose. Any others? Any  
guidelines as to when extending standard classes is considered okay,  
or not? Is there an expectation in the Ruby culture? is this kind of  
thing considered rude, or worse?

Cheers,
Bob

----
Bob Hutchison          -- blogs at <http://www.recursive.ca/hutch/>
Recursive Design Inc.  -- <http://www.recursive.ca/>
Raconteur              -- <http://www.raconteur.info/>