From: ghorner <gabriel.horner@...>
Date: 2009-05-14T00:10:04+09:00
Subject: how do you create a large number of irb commands?

I'm wondering what you all consider the best way for creating a large
number of irb commands. By commands I'm referring to methods for the
default irb object like irb,fg and jobs. Here are some of the
different ways that come to mind:

* Extend the default irb object with modules.
* Include modules into the default irb object. However this has the
nasty side effect of making those methods accessible to all objects.
* Just define methods in the default irb object. Simple and seems to
be the common way in irbrc's.
* Use irb's internal command system i.e. self.def_extend_command() in
http://github.com/rubyspec/matzruby/blob/9ca4e66f27e2563512afdd4c70afab34d80d513d/lib/irb/extend-command.rb
Seems like overkill.

To me the only serious options are extending or just defining the
method. By extending I get an ancestry trace on where commands came
from which is important when dealing with a large number of commands.
Also, if i do switch subsessions or workspaces I can just extend in
needed functionality. Since defining methods in the irb object lacks
the ancestry trace and the ability to reuse them in other context, my
vote is for extending.

Thoughts?

Gabriel