From: "David A. Black" <dblack@...>
Date: 2008-12-28T00:56:57+09:00
Subject: Re: What does 'Monkey Patching' exactly Mean in Ruby?

Hi --

On Sun, 28 Dec 2008, Yaser Sulaiman wrote:

> According to Wikipedia, a monkey patch[1] is:
>
>> a way to extend or modify the runtime code of dynamic languages [...]
>> without altering the original source code.
>
> The following statement from the same entry confused me:
>
>> In Ruby, the term monkey patch was misunderstood to mean any dynamic
>> modification to a class and is often used as a synonym for dynamically
>> modifying any class at runtime.
>
> I would like to know the exact meaning of monkey patching in Ruby.

There's no exact meaning. Some people use it to mean re-opening core
classes; some people use it to mean re-opening core classes in an
incompetent, unsafe manner; some people use it as a way of indicating
that any time you re-open a core class, you shouldn't (which is a
well-intentioned but reductive position); some people use it to mean
re-opening non-core classes; and so on.

It's basically a negative, uninformative, rather silly term that has
nothing going for it. I personally don't use it. I'm a minority of
about one, though :-)


David

-- 
David A. Black / Ruby Power and Light, LLC
Ruby/Rails consulting & training: http://www.rubypal.com
Coming in 2009: The Well-Grounded Rubyist (http://manning.com/black2)