From: "ara.t.howard" <ara.t.howard@...>
Date: 2008-05-23T00:34:57+09:00
Subject: Re: Prevent ruby constant variables from changing?


On May 22, 2008, at 7:12 AM, Florian Gilcher wrote:

> So how does the creation of an anonymous class hurt the argument  
> that class names are constants?


it's not not anonymous, it's held in a variable, just as normal  
classes are

   c = Class.new

   class C; end

   C = Class.new

it's subtle, but there is no such thing as a 'class name', rather  
there are classes that a held in variables, often these variables are  
constants, but not always, and it is true that ruby give you the  
illusion that they are names via a handy Class#name method, but note  
that this is really just inspect and not specific to classes:

cfp:~ > ruby -e 'class C;end;  module M;end;  p C.name;  p C;  p  
M.name;  p M'
"C"
C
"M"
M


the name is not special, just a method:

cfp:~ > ruby -e'  class C;end;  Constant = C;  p Constant.name;  def  
Constant.name; "Constant"; end;  p Constant.name  '
"C"
"Constant"

regards.

a @ http://codeforpeople.com/
--
we can deny everything, except that we have the possibility of being  
better. simply reflect on that.
h.h. the 14th dalai lama