From: Andrew Stewart <boss@...>
Date: 2007-10-02T20:02:35+09:00
Subject: Discarding putc But Not puts

Hello,

I'm working with a third-party library that calls both putc and puts  
in a certain method.  I'd like to discard what is written with putc  
for the duration of the method while keeping anything written to  
puts.  Given that the method lets you hook in your own code at its  
start and end, how do I do this?

I've tried various approaches including replacing $stdout with a  
custom class, and opening $stdout and rewriting putc -- but I haven't  
quite succeeded.

For example, here's some code that doesn't work:

   class << $stdout
     alias :original_putc :putc
     def putc(obj)
     end
   end

 >> putc 'b'
=> "b"   # I was hoping for no output

And some more non-working code:

   class MyIO < StringIO
     def putc(obj)
     end
   end

   # In hook called at start of target method
   $original_stdout = $stdout
   $stdout = MyIO.new

   # In hook called at end of target method
   $stdout = $original_stdout

Result: both putc and puts appear to be discarded.

Could anyone please show me the light?

Thanks in advance,
Andy Stewart


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