From: Pistos Christou <jesusrubsyou.5.pistos@...>
Date: 2006-05-08T04:16:59+09:00
Subject: Re: Extending Core Classes - Best Practices

Lou Scoras wrote:
> I agree with you that you would probably be safe in 99.8% of cases,
> but sometimes you are better off safe than sorry.  Ruby is flexible
> enough to let you go either way, and that's a good thing.  If you are
> confident go for it and modify the class; if not code more
> defensively.

Hm, okay.  I think I'll keep living a bit dangerously in this regard, 
then.  :)  I would tread much more carefully, though, if I were naming 
things that people might possibly use or assume in other places.

> Perhaps another thing to consider is on a more logical level.  If the
> method is not something that *any string* should be able to do, you've
> probably put it into the wrong class.

Well, if I'm interested if a string is #vogon? or not, I can't see why I 
would try to segregate strings into two groups.

The only other alternative that comes to mind is writing un-OO stuff 
like:

class SomeApplication
  def is_vogon?( str )
    VOGON_REGEXP === str
  end
end

Which just feels unRubylike to me.

> Good luck either way you decide, and write lots of tests =)

Thanks.  Your input has been helpful, and I appreciate you taking the 
time to share it.

Pistos

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