From: "s.ross" <cwdinfo@...>
Date: 2008-02-28T03:44:04+09:00
Subject: Re: Monkeypatching is Destroying Ruby

On Feb 27, 2008, at 6:20 AM, Jones, Brian - McClatchy Interactive wrote:

>> It may be enough to simply have ruby warn us when and where a class  
>> has
> been re-opened and a means to ignore it by file/path or namespace if  
> we
> want.

This whole thing is a complex philosophical discussion about the goals  
of the language and the problems that could be encountered if...

Perhaps someone could, instead of debating the theory, the impacts on  
scaling, and the philosophy, come up with a patch and run it by Ruby  
core for comment. Otherwise this thread could continue forever with  
those who find monkey patching useful saying ... um ... "I find monkey  
patching useful" and those who have issues with open classes  
saying ... um ... "it's not scalable, it's surprising, it's destroying  
Ruby, etc."

The arguments are out there. What it takes is a stake in the ground (a  
patch) that demonstrates some "better way" that doesn't cause Ruby to  
break existing applications.

FWIW, I'm in the first camp, and feel Ruby does just fine for my  
needs. I understand the arguments to the contrary, but don't  
anticipate them being a problem in my application space. That's not to  
claim validity of either position, just disclosure of my predisposition.

Cheers,

Steve