From: Jan Svitok <jan.svitok@...>
Date: 2007-03-09T08:17:37+09:00
Subject: Re: how to aliase a module method?

On 3/8/07, Xavier Noria <fxn@hashref.com> wrote:
> I am trying to aliase a module method to some local alias (to ease
> some template). I've tried a few variations of
>
>    alias escape_latex MyUtils.escape_latex
>
> without luck so far. I could mixin the module or write a wrapper, but
> I'd like to know how to accomplish that with alias, or that it is not
> possible if that's the case.

first of all, you need to use symbols for methods (actually, you just
refer to the names of the methods):

alias :escape_latex :MyUtils.escape_latex

Can you see the problem: how you'd write the symbol for
MyUtils.escape_latex? This is not the way.
Now, this is excerpt from Ryan Davis' Ruby QuickRef
(http://www.zenspider.com/Languages/Ruby/QuickRef.html):

Aliasing

alias        :new  :old
alias_method :new, :old

Creates a new reference to whatever old referred to. old can be any
existing method, operator, global. It may not be a local, instance,
constant, or class variable.

The simple solution would be in this case (provided you don't mind
including the other methods of the module):

include MyUtils

PS: I've tried

module TheModule
 instance_eval "alias escape_latex MyUtils.escape_latex"
end

and I got:

(eval):1: parse error, unexpected '.', expecting $
alias escape_latex MyUtils.escape_latex
                           ^(pointing at the dot)

I don't think it'd work, but I may be wrong, and will be glad if somebody
will show the working code for this.