From: Phrogz <phrogz@...>
Date: 2007-11-24T13:20:01+09:00
Subject: Re: Create method using define_method with all sort of args?

On Nov 23, 7:26 pm, MonkeeSage <MonkeeS...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Nov 23, 2:23 pm, "ara.t.howard" <ara.t.how...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > define_method 'new_method' do |some_param, *argv|
> >    options, *argv = argv
> >    options ||= {}
>
> >    ...
> > end
>
> Ara,
>
> Isn't that dangerous in case new_method is called like:
>
> a.new_method("a", other, args)
>
> ...where the optional 'option' arg is left out? It seems that your
> version would consume the 'other' operand in that case. I think you'd
> need to do something like I posted above to be safe.

Your question implies to me that you think that if I define a method
like this:
  def foo( name, age=0, weight=170 )
    ...
  end
that I can then call it like this:
  foo( "Gavin", 175 ) # use default age.

In case I'm properly understanding you, then you should know that you
cannot do that. You can't 'skip' an optional argument and have other
optional or non-optional arguments later. So, by definition, the
'other' you use in your example is necessarily the second parameter to
the method, and thus satisfies the OPs desired functionality.