From: paul.p.carey@...
Date: 2006-02-16T18:08:27+09:00
Subject: Creating objects without knowing their names

Hi

I'd like to load an arbitary number of Ruby files from a directory and
create their associated objects. However, I don't know the class names
of the files that have just been loaded. Is it possible to determine a
file's class name once that file has been loaded? (Without resorting to
parsing, or enforcing a mapping between the filename and class name.)

What I want to do is something like the following:

    converter_names = Array.new
    Find.find("./converters") do |filename|
      converter_names.push(filename) if filename =~ /rb$/
    end

    converters = Array.new
    converter_names.each do |converter_name|
      load converter_name
      klassName = ...?
      converters.push(Object.const_get(klassName).new)
    end

Many thanks

Paul