From: James Britt <james.britt@...>
Date: 2008-05-08T02:57:41+09:00
Subject: Re: Where to put code for extending a class?

David A. Black wrote:

>> Adding a 'class String;end' definition anywhere in your code opens up
>> String, and adds your method. This is called Monkeypatching, and you'll
> 
> Not by everyone :-) I know I'm in the minority, but I'll put in a word
> for those of us who dislike and, at least in my case, do not (and
> never will) use the term "monkeypatching". It seems to me to do a very
> bad job of conveying what's actually happening, which is neither
> patching, in any sense that I've ever heard the term used, nor
> "monkeying" (i.e., monkeying with the code, or monkeying around). All
> "monkey" connotations are negative, and the issue of whether or not
> its a good idea to modify existing classes in any given case is a lot
> more complicated.


I'm with David.

I can sort of understand the use of the term as the variant of Guerrilla 
Patching, but increasingly it gets used to mean almost any sort of 
run-time code alteration.  I.e. it's becoming more noise than signal.



-- 
James Britt

http://www.rubyaz.org         - Hacking in the Desert
http://www.jamesbritt.com     - Playing with Better Toys