From: Rick DeNatale <rick.denatale@...>
Date: 2006-08-31T00:20:32+09:00
Subject: Re: Madness this way lies...

On 8/30/06, Robert Dober <robert.dober@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 8/30/06, John Carter <john.carter@tait.co.nz> wrote:
> >
> > Ah me. In a fit of over user friendliness I did a couple of
> > the most colossally stupid things in a class.
> >
> > I, with head hung in shame, record them here so that...
> >   * others may avoid them,
> >   * I remember to avoid them later,
> >   * writers of obfusticated ruby may benefit.
> >
> > a) Name a method the same as something in the Kernel module and then
> >     forget that you have done so.
> >
> >     In particular I overrode "puts" in something that didn't inherit from
> >     IO. OUCH! That really does make printing debugging statements
> >     interesting.
> >
> > b) Put various key Ruby terms (eg. "raise") in alias statements.
> >
> > c) Do two or more of these very very dumb things in the same body of code.
>
>
> This is a chellange, I am sure I can do better or was it worse?

This reminds me of the cartoons which are sprinked throughout
"Smalltalk-80: Bits of History, Words of Advice."  No doubt long out
of print.

Some of these were

A black frame with a cartoon word bubble saying "OOPS! I just typed
'Processor <- nil.'!"

A plane with the right wing coming off and flames coming out, and the
pilot saying "I think we'd better boot and resume!"

A woman painting a floor with a paint labled "New System"  she's
painted herself into a small corner labled "Old System" then she steps
out of the corner, paints it and says "The nice thing about Smalltalk
is that the paint dries instantly!"

And my favorite, a series of pictures on the left word balloons on the right:

                                       "Here we go!"
    3+4
    FLASH                        "Oh...too bad"
                           later
                                       "Once more!"
    3+4

    DzzDD,,
    Geep
    Z,4hcn
                                       "Hmmmmm"
                           later
                                       "This out to be better!"
    3+4

    LAD Compiler doe
    not understand => ^h,,3ep

                                        "Well now!..."
                          later
    3+4
      Class text image
                                        "Oh, I think I know what that is..."
                          later
    3+4
         9
                                        "All Right!
                                          Hey everybody, Smalltalk works!"
-- 
Rick DeNatale

My blog on Ruby
http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/