From: Logan Capaldo <logancapaldo@...>
Date: 2006-05-11T00:10:14+09:00
Subject: Re: where do you require?


On May 10, 2006, at 10:49 AM, Jeff Rose wrote:

> I was reading through some of Why's parkplace code this afternoon,  
> and I saw a couple things I wanted to ask people about. (http:// 
> code.whytheluckystiff.net/parkplace/browser/trunk/lib/parkplace.rb)
>
> 1) What's the effect of doing a require inside a method like in  
> ParkPlace#config or ParkPlace#serve?  It's just a method right, so  
> it will re-require every time the method is called?  Since it's  
> getting loaded inside a method does it garbage collect the library  
> after the method returns?  (Maybe do it to save memory?)  What's  
> the behavior with bindings that use dynamically linked libraries?
>

require only loads a given file once regardless of how many times  
it's called. I believe _why is doing the require's in methods so that  
a) it only goes to the disk to require something if it's _really_  
needed and b) He's putting the require as close as possible to the  
place where it's actually used so that when reading the code you  
don't see a bunch of requires at the top and wonder where in the code  
they are used. Regardless the require still acts globally.


> 2) What is this type of class definition all about:
>
> module ParkPlace
>   class << self
>     def foo
>     end
>   end
> end
>
>
> It seems to be creating singleton methods the same as doing this,  
> except with more typing:
>
> module ParkPlace
>   def ParkPlace.foo        # or def self.foo
>   end
> end
>

That's exactly what it is. OTOH it's only more typing if you're only  
creating one or two methods, e.g.:

class ParkPlace
   class << self
     def foo
     end

     def bar
     end

     def baz
     end
end

v.s.

class ParkPlace
   def self.foo
   end

   def self.bar
   end

   def self.baz
   end
end



> Thanks,
> Jeff
>
>