From: mental@...
Date: 2006-03-15T07:54:33+09:00
Subject: Re: Alternate notation for eigenclass

Quoting Gary Wright <wright_gary_r@sbcglobal.net>:

> And as I said earlier, Ruby is quite happy to have an expression
> as the superclass such as:
>
> 	class ProxyArray < DelgateClass(Array)
> 	end
>
> I would think that
>
>        class expression
>           #code
>        end
>
> [should] be analogous to
>
>        expression.class_eval { # code }

The above example illustrates exactly why general expressions aren't
allowed as the "operand" for the class keyword.  There'd be an
ambiguity around:

 class SomeConstant < some_expression
 end

...is SomeConstant the name of a new class to define, and the result
of some_expression its superclass?

...or is SomeConstant an object on which to call #<, and the result
of some_expression the argument to the call?

You can't simultanously have a special syntax for class declaration,
and still allow general expressions, without writing a really
tortured grammar and deeply confusing people in the process.

matz wisely opted to stick with just one -- the former -- which is
the standard notation for class declarations we use every day.

-mental