From: Michael Fellinger <m.fellinger@...>
Date: 2009-01-11T20:18:03+09:00
Subject: Re: Namespaces a la C#

On Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 7:33 PM, Cippo Lippo <bolthar@libero.it> wrote:
> Hei everybody,
>
>     I'm kind of new to ruby and, since i come from C#, one of the main
> things i'm missing is the .NET "project" way of organizing the codebase.
> As you probably know: in .NET you can arrange your code into a project,
> then reference that project to have access to everything public inside
> it. Example:
>
> <in DotNetProject>
> <file Temp.cs>
>
> namespace Temp
> {
>      public class TestClass { }
> }
>
> <file TempTwo.cs>
> namespace Temp
> {
>      public class TestTwoClass { }
> }
>
> then, in another project, you get access to TestClass and TestTwoClass
> referencing the DotNetProject and you can simplify the syntax too by
> adding 'using' directives on your files like:
>
> using Temp;
>
> public class NewClass
> {
>    public void DoSomething()
>    {
>        TestClass ts = new TestClass();
>        TestTwoClass ts2 = new TestTwoClass();
>        //the following is still legal and
>        //it's the syntax you'll have to use
>        //if you choose not to add the 'using' line
>        //at the top
>        Temp.TestClass ts3 = new Temp.TestClass();
>        Temp.TestTwoClass ts4 = new Temp.TestTwoClass();
>    }
> }
>
> So: is there a way to do something similar in Ruby? Like using a Module,
> but splitted on separate files, such as :
>
> <in file1.rb>
> Module test
>    Class testclass
>    end
> end
>
> <in file2.rb>
> Module test
>    Class testtwoclass
>    end
> end
>
> and then
>
> <in file bootstrapper.rb>
> require 'test'
> ...
> ts = test::testclass.new
> ts2 = test::testtwoclass.new
> ...
>
> Sorry if this is a lame question but the
> add-every-freaking-file-every-freaking-time way isn't just going to work
> on a large project and i don't really like having to code every class
> belonging to a namespace in the same file like this :
>
> Module test
>    Class one
>    end
>
>    Class two
>    end
>    ...
>    Class n
>    end
> end
>
> Thanks in advance!

The short answer is: just try it :)
The long answer is: Ruby lets you reopen just about everything, so you
can do this without problems:

module Foo
  class Bar
  end
end

module Foo
  class Duh
  end
end

It doesn't matter in which files the code is, as long as you require both.
The way libraries do it is usually something like this:
http://paste.linuxhelp.tv/pastes/view/15344

Now you can reference Zoo::Animal and Zoo::Panther as long as you
require the /lib/zoo.rb