From: "Hal E. Fulton" <hal9000@...>
Date: 2001-12-21T06:45:59+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:29172] Re: special case?

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Alexander Schofield <pcs3@njit.edu>
To: ruby-talk ML <ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 12:27 PM
Subject: [ruby-talk:29154] special case?


> Just out of curiosity, why can't I say:
> 
> irb(main):001:0> class << 1
> irb(main):002:1> def meth
> irb(main):003:2> end
> irb(main):004:1> end
> TypeError: no virtual class for Fixnum
>         from (irb):1
> 
> ?
> 
> Is this a hole in the pure OO of ruby, or is there an OO explanation?

It's rather a hole. The current implementation of 
primitive types does not lend itself well to singletons.
(I think it's just Fixnum, true, false, and nil that can't
have singletons.)

I believe this will change in the future, from what I've
heard Matz say in the past.

Hal