From: Jens Wille <jens.wille@...>
Date: 2008-07-28T02:04:32+09:00
Subject: Re: Is there a simple way to find a method definition?

hi dean!

Dean Wampler [2008-07-27 16:50]:
> Does anyone know of a programmatic way to find the definition?
this is exactly what you can do with AddedMethods [1]:

  require 'rubygems'
  require 'nuggets/util/added_methods/init'

  require 'your/library/or/whatever'

  matches = Util::AddedMethods.find(
    :name  => 'method_name',
    :class => YourClass  # optional
  )

  # get the class(es) where matching method(s) were defined
  matches.each { |am| puts am[:class]  # or am.klass }

  # assume the first one is the one we're looking for
  am = matches.first

  # is it a singleton method?
  puts am.singleton

  # where exactly has it been defined?
  puts "#{am.file}, line #{am.line}"

  # now get its source
  puts am  # implies #to_s, you can also call #extract_source directly

does that help in any way? if you trip over any quirks or even bugs,
or if you have any suggestions, please let me know. as i said
earlier in this thread, you can get ruby-nuggets, which this library
is a part of, from rubyforge [2] or from our own gem server [3].

[1]
<http://prometheus.rubyforge.org/ruby-nuggets/classes/Util/AddedMethods.html>
[2] <http://rubyforge.org/projects/prometheus/>
[3] <http://prometheus.khi.uni-koeln.de/rubygems/>

cheers
jens

-- 
Jens Wille, Dipl.-Bibl. (FH)
prometheus - Das verteilte digitale Bildarchiv f�r Forschung & Lehre
Kunsthistorisches Institut der Universit�t zu K�ln
Albertus-Magnus-Platz, D-50923 K�ln
Tel.: +49 (0)221 470-6668, E-Mail: jens.wille@uni-koeln.de
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