From: Phrogz <gavin@...>
Date: 2006-12-25T05:25:10+09:00
Subject: Re: Method equality; setting instance variables on Method instances

Phrogz wrote:
> A few questions about the code below:
> 1) Why do m1 and m2 have different IDs but compare as equal?
> 2) Why does m2 invoke the same old functionality when run?
> 3) Why did my instance_variable_set not 'take'?

Another data point on that last question: at least it looks like you
can set/get instance variables on a Method instance in general:

irb(main):001:0> m1 = Kernel.method( :system )
=> #<Method: Kernel.system>
irb(main):002:0> m1.instance_variable_set( :@foo, :bar )
=> :bar
irb(main):003:0> m1.instance_variables
=> ["@foo"]
irb(main):004:0> m1.instance_variable_get( :@foo )
=> :bar

In case it wasn't obvious, what I am trying to achieve with the above
code is a stack-like method override/restore system. Each time you
override a method, the method should store the name of the
randomly-chosen alias for the old method.

A workaround will be to store the stack of method names on the module
itself (which I'll try next); nonetheless, I'm interested in why my
original code didn't work as I expected.