From: Yossef Mendelssohn <ymendel@...>
Date: 2007-09-25T00:42:20+09:00
Subject: Re: best way to 'hide' a method when method_missing is in town

On Sep 24, 9:53 am, vinbarnes <vinbar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sep 24, 9:33 am, Paul Brannan <pbran...@atdesk.com> wrote:
>
> > There probably is a better solution to your problem, but it depends on
> > *why* you desire this behavior.
>
> I'm trying to hide attributes in a Rails model. ActiveRecord::Base has
> method_missing defined to build getter/setter methods for attributes
> on the fly. But the problem is more general in nature as I described.
>
> Kevin

As you said, this problem can be solved with method_missing in Sub.

class Sub
  def method_missing(method, *args)
    if private_methods.include?(method.to_s)
      send(method, *args)
    else
      puts "#{method} caught in sub"
    end
  end
end


This isn't a solution for your problem, but a comment on the
(possible?) root of it: IMO, method_missing shouldn't fire on private/
protected method calls. My opinion goes further, that calling a
private or protected method shouldn't raise the same exception as
calling a method that doesn't exist. If for some reason one wants to
track attempted access to private methods, rescuing NoMethodError and
checking text is somewhat unsavory. It would be nicer to rescue
MethodAccessLevelError (or something with an even better name), which
could be related to NoMethodError based on use cases (right now, I see
them as children of the same parent).

--
-yossef

--
-yossef