From: Gary Wright <gwtmp01@...>
Date: 2008-03-01T04:53:02+09:00
Subject: Re: Monkeypatching is Destroying Ruby


On Feb 29, 2008, at 2:40 PM, Eric Mahurin wrote:
> Yep.  I think your library is providing things that YOU think  
> should be part
> of Ruby.  If somebody else provides methods for what they think  
> should be
> part of Ruby, your library and their code most likely won't play  
> together.

Which was exactly my point.  Distributed library development is  
difficult.

Another way to think about this entire problem is in the same way we  
view distributed source code control systems.  How do you manage  
conflicts between independently evolved code bases?  At some point  
when you try to merge two files/classes/methods that are in conflict  
you have to decide how to resolve the conflict.  The fact that the  
attempted merge is happening at runtime is interesting but the  
conflict/merge problem exists even if the attempted merge was  
occurring at compile time, or even at the design stage (i.e. can I  
use a particular 3rd party gem to implement xyz?).

Gary Wright