From: Brian Candler <b.candler@...>
Date: 2009-05-27T18:24:09+09:00
Subject: Re: String representing relative file name, adding (meta) data?

Markus Fischer wrote:
> The downsize is, of course, it's not a string. So whenever I need a
> string operation, I need to explicitly call .to_s, but I can live with
> that. Would be nice if it could automatically work in string context,
> like concatentation, too.

Some Ruby methods call to_str implicitly when they expect a String, so 
try that.

irb(main):005:0> class Foo; def initialize(s) @s=s; end; def to_str; @s; 
end; end
=> nil
irb(main):006:0> str1 = "foo"
=> "foo"
irb(main):007:0> str2 = Foo.new("bar")
=> #<Foo:0xb7bdb8cc @s="bar">
irb(main):008:0> str1 << str2
=> "foobar"

Also, you may wish to delegate other string-like methods to @name inside 
class Resourcename, e.g.

  def <<(other)
    @name.<<(other)
  end
  def [](*args)
    @name[*args]
  end
  .. etc

This lets you pick and choose the ones which you wish to expose. 
Otherwise, you can delegate all unknown methods like this:

  def method_missing(m, *args, &blk)
    @name.send(m, *args, &blk)
  end
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.