From: "Marcin Mielżyński" <lopx@...>
Date: 2006-11-10T08:25:07+09:00
Subject: Re: Overwriting the Integer class for method succ! (instead of just succ)

paul wrote:

> Now I still wonder, the only source-code I found for the Integer class
> was in C. From this I wasn't able to figure out how I would go IF i'd
> like to write this count++ (and with that modifying all 1's to 2's
> e.g.).
> 
> This kind of information, is not in the Programming Ruby Built-in
> Classes and Methods chapter. Is this because that only contains the
> public methods, and not the protected's? Or are there no such thing as
> protected's for Integer (because it's in C?)?
> 
> Cheers again
> 

Nope, since Fixnum is an immediate value (variables are copied - not the 
values they refer to) and there is only one instance of a specific 
number (so only one 1, 2, 3 etc...). Changing it would affect all other 
instances in the whole interpreter (in fact a single Fixnum instance 
takes only 4/8 bytes depending on the architecture - so they cant have a 
singleton).

But it is possible to tweak Float instances ;) , although they are (seem 
to be) immutable, but not immediate (only on the c side - but quite easy).

lopex