From: Jim Freeze <jfreeze@...>
Date: 2002-01-17T04:29:23+09:00
Subject: Re: Protecting a member hash

On Thu, Jan 17, 2002 at 03:59:00AM +0900, Jack Dempsey wrote:
> I don't understand how he was able to write to the hash with only an
> attr_reader in place...what am I overlooking?
> 
The t.entity returns the hash. Once I have it in my possesion,
I can do whatever I want. :)
It's like doing:

  #t.entity[key] = val in 2 step:
  my_hash_ptr = t.entity
  my_hash_ptr[key] = val

So, I could merrily change all of its contents.
However, Ruby will complain if I try to do:

  t.entity = someting_else

This attempts to change the value of @entity, not
it contents.

Jim


-- 
Jim Freeze
Today is a fine day for Ruby programming.
www.freeze.org