From: furufuru@... (Ryo Furue)
Date: 2001-09-23T11:42:28+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:21573] What's the "Data" class?  Don't we need a namespace for standard classes?

Hi there,

I spent a hard time to debug my code, which boils down to something
like this:

	class Data
	   def hello
	      puts "hello"
	   end
	end

	d = Data.new
	d.hello

The error message was

	./try.rb:9: undefined method `new' for Data:Class (NameError)

After a lot of trial and error, I finally found that the code works if
I replace "Data" with "MyData".  I guess "Data" is some predefined
class.  I looked into the pickaxe Ruby book but couldn't find it.

This makes me think that Ruby really needs to hide its "standard
library" (File, Time, Socket, etc.  Is "Data" part of it?) into a
single namespace and to keep the default namespace as clean as
possible.  Currently it's too much "polluted" (no derogatory meaning
intended).  C++ did this in its international standard: it hides all
its standard library in the namespace "std".  If you don't know C++, I
illustrate the idea in pseudo-Ruby code:

	f = File.open(....) # => undefined class File

But
	require "Std"
	f = Std.File.open(....) # OK

Or
	include Std
	f = File.open(....)  #OK

What do you think?

Cheers,
Ryo