From: Bjorn Pettersen <BPettersen@...>
Date: 2001-08-08T00:25:09+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:19296] Re: Perl/Python/Ruby common backend (Parrot, can Ruby play too?)

> From: Alex Martelli [mailto:aleaxit@yahoo.com]
> 
> "Phil Tomson" <ptkwt@shell1.aracnet.com> wrote in message
> news:X2Jb7.24637$C7.9671673@e3500-chi1.usenetserver.com...
>     ...
> > Questions for the Ruby community to ponder: What sorts of 
> features do we
> > need that might be unique to Ruby?  [One that comes to 
> mind: the ability
> > to extend an existing class.]  For the
> 
> In what sense is this "unique to Ruby"?  The following works 
> in Python:
> 
> class Existing:
>     def one(self): print 'one'
> 
> anInstance = Existing()
> 
> def two(self): print 'two'
> Existing.two = two
> 
> # and now you can call anInstance.two(), having
> # extended existing class Existing "after the
> # fact" -- already-created instances also get
> # to use the 'extensions' to the class.

I think the only need I've seen so far in Ruby that isn't neccessary in
Python is functionality for providing call/cc, and being able to add
methods to "built-in" classes, like Fixnum (Python int), and Array
(Python list). Python 2.2 might let you do that also however.

-- bjorn