From: Michal Suchanek <hramrach@...>
Date: 2008-02-26T07:53:02+09:00
Subject: Re: Monkeypatching is Destroying Ruby

On 24/02/2008, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky <znmeb@cesmail.net> wrote:
> Avdi Grimm wrote:
>  > Hi folks,
>  >
>  > I wrote a blog post with the intentionally provocative title above,
>  > which can be found here:
>  >
>  > http://avdi.org/devblog/?p=18
>  >
>
> > While the title is a bit of deliberate hyperbole, I am genuinely
>  > troubled about the popularization of monkey patching in the Ruby
>  > community.  I explain my reasons more thoroughly in the post, but
>  > here's a synopsis:
>  >
>  >   Monkeypatching has become the hip thing to do in the
>  >   Ruby and (especially?) Rails communities, and it has
>  >   reached the point where experienced programmers are
>  >   turning to it as the tool of first resort *even* when there
>  >   is a simpler, more traditional solution available.  I
>  >   suggest that it's time for Ruby hackers to start setting a
>  >   better example.
>
> >
>  > My hope with this post is to start a conversation about fostering
>  > robust software extension mechanisms in the Ruby ecosystem.  I welcome
>  > any comments, both here and on the blog.
>  >
>
>
> One of my friends once passed this little quotation on to me:
>
>  "Always code as if the person who will maintain your code is a violent
>  psychopath who knows where you live."

You know, you can interpret this both ways. Either write your code so
trouble-free that he never notices it or make it such that he gets a
heart attack the moment he tries to to look at it/use it.

Of course depending on the thing you write one approach may be more
likely to succeed than the other ..

Thanks

Michal