From: Adam Shelly <adam.shelly@...>
Date: 2006-10-03T03:39:30+09:00
Subject: redefining splat?

Can you redefine the * prefix operator?
I'm in the middle of refactoring some code. I have a function that
looks like this

  def send_command cmd_arry
    type = cmd_arry.shift
    @comms.send(type, *cmd_arry)
  end

I want to replace the command arrays (which have the form [:COMMAND,
data1, data2, ...]) with a class structure like:

class LogonCommand < Command
def initialize name, pass
  super()
  @name,@pass = name,pass
  @command = :LOGON
 end
 def write
  [@command, @name, @pass]
 end
end

but there are a lot of these command types, and I wanted to do a
gradual transition.  So I thought I could make the Command class mimic
the array:

class Command
 def shift
    @command
 end
 def *
   *(write[1..-1])
 end
end

but that gives a syntax error.  Is there any way to redefine the splat
for my class?  Or at least to make my class act like an array when the
splat is applied?

-Adam