From: Dave Burt <dave@...>
Date: 2006-03-25T23:24:42+09:00
Subject: Re: WIN32OLE#[] and WIN32OLE#[]= method in Ruby 1.9 (or later)

Hi!

Masaki Suketa wrote:
> I have a question about Win32OLE.
> I think that I'll change the behavior of WIN32OLE#[] and WIN32OLE#[]=
> in Ruby 1.9 or later.
>
> I have not commited the change yet.
> Before commiting it, I want suggestions or opinions from Win32OLE users.

No longer allowed:
>  excel["Visible"] = true
>   record ["StringData", 1] = 'dddd'

New:
>  worksheet.cells[1,2] = 10
>  env["FOO"] = "BARBAZ"
>      puts rs["id"].value # This is new feature!

Excellent! This makes a lot more sense than the existing function of [] and 
[]=.

When I first used WIN32OLE, I was surprised that you couldn't use [] to 
access index operations.

I haven't used obj[prop, n] before, that I can recall. I think neither that 
nor setproperty() are the ideal Ruby syntax for this operation, but [] seems 
better. How about this:

>   record ["StringData", 1] = 'dddd'
>   record.setproperty("StringData", 1, 'dddd')

record[:StringData][1] = 'dddd'

Possible implementation:
class WIN32OLE
    class Property
        attr_reader :object, :name
        def initialize(obj, name)
            unless obj.kind_of?(WIN32OLE)
                raise TypeError.new("cannot convert #{obj.inspect} to 
WIN32OLE")
            end
            self.object = obj
            self.name = name.to_s
        end
        def [](*args)
            object.getproperty(name, *args)
        end
        def []=(*args)
            object.setproperty(name, *args)
        end
    end
    def [](*args)
        if args.size == 1 && args[0].kind_of?(Symbol)
            return Property.new(self, *args)
        end
        # everything else
    end
end

(I realize there's 'win32ole/property' already, but I don't know exactly 
what its purpose is.)

Thanks a lot for WIN32OLE, Masaki Suketa!

Cheers,
Dave