From: gwtmp01@...
Date: 2005-12-07T00:57:49+09:00
Subject: Re: Subclassing Class.


On Dec 6, 2005, at 10:11 AM, David A. Black wrote:
> That may be due to restraint on the part of people who prefer other  
> terms
> than "eigenclass" but don't think there should be a
> "vote"-by-pre-emptive-usage contest in this area.

Isn't that pretty much how all new jargon comes into being, by being  
used?
Even in academic papers you'll see words and phrases coined without a  
vote
and if the semantics appeal to the community they will be referenced and
reused in another paper until they become part of the standard  
nomenclature.

I do understand that new terms can be confusing and, unlike a  
refereed paper,
most posters don't have footnotes to define all their terms, but new  
terms
will continue to emerge (e.g., Ajax) spontaneously.

The Ruby community is very fortunate to have Matz to sift through all  
the
suggestions, RCRs, code, and discussion and provide a certain amount of
guidance, but that doesn't preclude other sources of inspiration (I  
hope).

The big elephant in the room seems to be Matz comments that the  
semantics
of a meta/singleton/eigen class might be implemented via some mechanism
other than a class, which would certainly stir the pot a bit.