From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2008-02-24T18:39:55+09:00
Subject: Re: Monkeypatching is Destroying Ruby

On 23.02.2008 23:36, Avdi Grimm wrote:
> On Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 5:23 PM, Eric Mahurin <eric.mahurin@gmail.com> wrote:
>>  I don't agree with the title
> 
> Like I said at the beginning of the article, neither do I ;-)
> 
>>  * adding new (or perceived missing) functionality (methods) to a class.  The
>>  traditional solution would be to just inherit from the class and use the
>>  derived class instead where you want this new functionality.  Since you
>>  can't inherit from some classes (i.e. immediates, a problem with the
>>  language IMHO), you can instead use something like Forwardable instead.
> 
> Indeed.  The irony here is that Ruby is perhaps the easiest language
> in the world to implement delegation in.  I'm planning on writing a
> series of posts on alternatives to monkey patching, and delegation is
> going to be one of the first techniques I talk about.

But keep in mind that since it's so easy you can shoot yourself in the 
foot equally well as I have tried to point out in a recent post:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.ruby/msg/90f76656fd2c0f68

On a broader scale: I agree with your assessment that MP can cause bugs 
that are hard to find and that there are usually other ways to achieve 
the same effect in cleaner ways.  I for my part try to steer people away 
from using those "dirty" techniques (MP, inheriting core classes etc.) 
whenever I think there is a easier and clearer solution available.

Do we need a discussion about this?  Is MP really destroying Ruby and / 
or Rails?  I don't know.  Maybe MP is just the current buzz word that 
everybody uses and will go away like any other fashion.  But I do think 
that it's helpful to once in a while step out of daily business and 
think about things on a broader scale.  It helps keep our minds flexible 
and not run into a completely wrong direction for too long a time.

Kind regards

	robert