From: Chris Carter <cdcarter@...>
Date: 2007-06-13T07:51:59+09:00
Subject: Re: Extending Symbol with #to_str effects Struct.new

On 6/12/07, Trans <transfire@gmail.com> wrote:
> Not arguing either way a s to whether this makes sense or not (it's
> had it's lengthy discussions before).
>
>   > class Symbol
>   >    def to_str
>   >      String(self)
>   >    end
>   >  end
>
> But it does cause this strangeness:
>
>   > Struct.new(:x)
>   NameError: identifier x needs to be constant
>         from (irb):6:in `new'
>         from (irb):6
>         from :0
>
> Is it really THAT unreasonable an extension? I wonder what else it
> would effect, and why. I don't really even understand the error
> message, but one gets the same result with:
>
>   > Struct.new('x')
>   NameError: identifier x needs to be constant
>         from (irb):1:in `new'
>         from (irb):1
>         from :0
>
> That in itself seems silly.
>
> T.
>
>
>

This is because if Struct gets a String or a "string like object
(responds_to? :to_str)" it uses an alternate behavior where the first
argument, if a proper Constant name in a string, is defined to be the
Struct class generated under the Struct:: namespace.

-- 
Chris Carter
concentrationstudios.com
brynmawrcs.com