From: Matt Todd <chiology@...>
Date: 2006-08-27T15:21:34+09:00
Subject: Re: Matz' Wild Ideas: Annotations

> I was looking at Matz' Wild and Weird ideas [1]. He talks about
> annotations at one point and gives this example:
>
>   # @require: arg1 >= 10
>   # @overriding: true
>   # @visibility: public
>   def foo(arg1)
>     ...
>   end
>
> I'm not too keen on using comments like this. It separates the
> annotations from ordinary code, thwarting  the great dynamic nature of
> Ruby. Perhaps autovivify class level methods with a syntax like call
> instance vars could be used instead:
>
>   @foo require: lambda { arg1 >= 10 }
>        overriding: true,
>        visibility: public
>
> That way they could be used any where, even encapsulated and reused.

module Annotate
private
  def validate test
    raise "Requirement failed" if test == false
  end
end

class X
  include Annotate

  def foo arg1
    validate arg1 >= 10
    overriding true

    # do stuff here
  end
end

Of course, this only works as far as what we can actually do with the
complexitiy of methods. I'm not really sure what's intended for
'overriding' because it's a little ambiguous (to me, at least). But
'validate' works.

I guess I should go read up on what Matz said to get a better understanding.

M.T.