From: Tanner Burson <tanner.burson@...>
Date: 2006-05-06T07:20:15+09:00
Subject: Rough idea regarding modification of core classes

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After reading the sharp knives and glue thread, my head started spinning
around some ways to minimize or localize the modifications to core classes.
This is what I came up with, it's obviously rough, not-all-inclusive, and
has some fairly obvious and severe drawbacks, but none-the-less I thought
I'd share my 20 minutes of fiddling in the hopes of sparking some
conversation if nothing else.

class Object
    def define_meta_methods(name,&blk)
        @@__meta_methods__=3D
(Object.class_variables.include?("@@__meta_methods")
? @@__meta_methods__ : Hash.new)
        @@__meta_methods__[name] =3D Array.new if
@@__meta_methods__[name].nil?
        @@__meta_methods__[name] << blk
    end

    def add_meta_methods
        @@__meta_methods__[self.class].each do |mm|
            instance_eval &mm
        end
    end
end

Object.define_meta_methods(String) do
    def test_meta
        puts "Tested Meta!"
    end
end

Object.define_meta_methods(String) do
    @something=3D"Hello"
    def something; @something; end; # had to go this route instead of
attr_reader, because of private restriciton.  Can avoid it with the send
hack though.
end

some_string =3D String.new
some_other_string =3D String.new

some_string.add_meta_methods
some_string.test_meta # -> "Tested Meta!"
puts some_string.something # -> "Hello"

some_other_string.test_meta #--> "No method error"


--
=3D=3D=3DTanner Burson=3D=3D=3D
tanner.burson@gmail.com
http://tannerburson.com   <---Might even work one day...

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