From: Mark Hahn <mchahn@...>
Date: 2001-12-30T08:58:49+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:29674] Re: promoting self to subclass (was extending method of class A ...)


> see the thread starting at: [ruby-talk:19517]

That sure was a long thread.  It covered all my ideas and arguments, so I
see that I lost my argument before I even thought of it <grin>.

-----Original Message-----
From: ruby-talk-admin@ruby-lang.org
[mailto:ruby-talk-admin@ruby-lang.org]On Behalf Of David Alan Black
Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2001 1:39 PM
To: ruby-talk ML
Subject: [ruby-talk:29654] Re: promoting self to subclass (was extending
method of class A ...)


Hello --

On Sat, 29 Dec 2001, Mark Hahn wrote:

> Why not allow a method to "promote" it's object to a subclass of the
object?
> I've wanted to do this before in ruby and Java.  It should be somewhat
easy
> in ruby and nearly impossible in a static language.
[...]
> Where I've run into this need is when an initializer realizes that, based
on
> input params, there is a more specific class for this data.  Another case
is
> when an object is created and the "type" gets refined later.  If you want
a
> specific example of this being used, let me know.

Yes, please :-)

I'm also wondering whether this is similar to the idea of a #become
method.  There's been a bunch of discussion on that here in the past.
In particular, see the thread starting at:
"[ruby-talk:19517] Why not?: Assigning to self"


David

--
David Alan Black
home: dblack@candle.superlink.net
work: blackdav@shu.edu
Web:  http://pirate.shu.edu/~blackdav