From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2006-06-17T22:39:52+09:00
Subject: Re: self-similarity or closure in ruby

2006/6/17, uncutstone wu <uncutstone@sina.com>:
> It seems
>    In lisp, everything is expression
>    In smalltalk, everything is object
>    In Ruby,
>        everything is an expression
>        everything is an object
>
> This kind of characteristic is called closure.
> It is also a kind of self-similarity.
>
> It seems self-similarity or closure will give ruby many benefits.
>
> But what's the benefits we can get? I appreciate your opinions.

Everything is an object

 - there's a certain set of methods that can be invoked on any
instance, like #to_s, #hash etc.  See Obejct.instance_methods()

 - anything can be stored in a variable (not like Java for example
where you cannot store POD values in a variable of type
java.lang.Object)

 - generally every value can be treated in a generic way

Everything is an expression

 - I don't see that much advantage from this in a language like Ruby,
probably one of the most useful features together with the fact that
everything is an object is that you can chain values through boolean
operators like x = a || b || c.

Just some thoughts

Kind regards

robert


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