From: Zhao Yi <youhaodeyi@...>
Date: 2008-11-17T17:02:13+09:00
Subject: Re: How can I overload a method in Ruby

Pe単a, Botp wrote:
> From: Zhao Yi [mailto:youhaodeyi@gmail.com]
> # ok I understand. Just curious, overload is a good feature in OO
> # programming. Why doesn't Ruby support it? If I use the method you
> # mentioned, I have to check the parameters and use if - else
> # or swith to distinguish them.
> 
> maybe because of the ff dilemma:
> 
> def m(1)
> end
> 
> def m("one")
> end
> 
> 
> ruby will be forced to check type... wc leads to static typing... wc is 
> not matz ruby..
> 
> btw, Zhao, can you give us a real case where you really need to do 
> method loading?
> 
> kind regards -botp

I want to write a build method which will build source code in a 
directory. I assume there are two build methods, one doesn't have 
parameter while the other have one parameter. The method without 
parameter will build the source code in default directory, the method 
with one parameter will build the source code in the directory which is 
specified by this parameter. With method overloading, I can write them 
as below:

def build()
    make
end

def build(directory)
    cd directory
    make
end

but without overloading, I have to do this:
def build(directory)
    if(directory == nil)
      make
    else
      cd directory
      make
    endif
end
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