From: Gary Wright <gwtmp01@...>
Date: 2009-08-15T04:31:35+09:00
Subject: Re: Class method aliased in superclass bypasses subclass overrides


On Aug 14, 2009, at 2:25 PM, David A. Black wrote:
> The aliasing just means that there's now a method called
> Parent.fake_method. It doesn't add any methods to any class other than
> the class where it's executed (in this case, the singleton class of
> Parent). Basically, creating an alias has the same footprint as
> writing a method definition.


I find it mildly annoying that 'alias' doesn't actually alias the
method (i.e. multiple names for the same thing).  Instead, alias
just replicates an existing method body and associates a new
name with the replica. Seems like 'replicate' would be a better
keyword for the current semantics.

I also have the inability to ever remember which argument to alias
is the new name and which argument is the old name.

Did 'alias' work differently in the early days of Ruby such that
the semantics changed but not the keyword?