From: Avdi Grimm <avdi@...>
Date: 2008-05-17T06:19:57+09:00
Subject: Re: Monkey Patching (definition)?

On Fri, May 16, 2008 at 3:48 PM, Florian Gilcher <flo@andersground.net> wrote:
> I define monkey-patching as "opening and changing behaviour of a
> method/class
> in the knowledge that other classes/libraries depend on it".

I think this is one of the best definitions I've seen.  It should be
remembered that the term arose in specific circumstances: it came from
the practice of dynamically modifying the behavior of *existing* code.
 Hence "patching", rather than "monkey extending" or "monkey adding".

Of course, it's not as clear-cut as all that because sometimes one
coder's extension is another coder's unexpected change in behavior.
But the spirit of monkey patching is that of altering existing code so
that it behaves differently - to temporarily fix a bug without
altering the source, for instance.

-- 
Avdi

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