From: Johannes Friestad <johannes.friestad@...>
Date: 2005-12-19T09:03:58+09:00
Subject: Re: How to know if a method is read-write or read-only

I assume you mean methods that are property getters/setters, along the
lines of 'user.name()'/'user.name=(name)', and that read-write or
read-only refer to object properties like 'name'?

There is no general way to determine whether a method updates object
state or not. (Unless you start parsing bytecodes or hook into the VM
parse tree, which is a somewhat larger project.)
You'll have to rely on naming conventions, like "a method that takes
no arguments and has a name not ending with '=' is a getter, a method
that takes one argument and has a name ending with '=' is a setter".

You can get the number of arguments from Method#arity, like
Array.instance_method(:length).arity
=> 0

jf

On 12/18/05, Trans <transfire@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've now come across a second usecase for knowing if a method is
> read-write or read-only on it's object's state. Both cases boil-down to
> having meta-method behave differently depending on the behavior of
> method being delegated to, but the circumstances differ completely. To
> give an example, the current case generates method wraps for any given
> class, applying thread sycronization. If a method is read-only it's
> wraped in a Sync::SH, if read-write then Sync::Ex.
>
> So I wonder, is there a way to determine this fact about a method?
>
> Thanks,
> T.