From: David Masover <ninja@...>
Date: 2010-03-06T13:39:28+09:00
Subject: Re: "Self Organizing Record" Idea

On Friday 05 March 2010 07:30:08 pm thunk wrote:
> (and the real question on my mind lately...)
> 
> I'm using Class instances directly as "records"  and intend to use
> CouchDB (or another "document" base)

I'd suggest Riak, but I haven't used any so far.

> to pull them up when the system
> gets larger.

Wait, Class instances?

...why?

I really don't understand this. Why would you create a brand-new class for 
each record? I can understand creating a brand-new _object_ and extending it, 
but a class?

> 1.  a new instance method might be added to each class dynamically and/
> or new instance data might be added to the class.

Again, it makes NO sense to create a new class for this. Let's talk actual 
code. Are you really thinking something like this:

klass = Class.new
klass.send :define_method, :foo do
  # ...
end

If so, do this instead:

require 'metaid'
object = Object.new
object.meta_eval do
  define_method :foo do
    # ...
  end
end

> 2.  the object is "marshaled" out with the new methods/variables/data

Nope, marshal can't save methods -- or code blocks, as I understand it. You'd 
have to store those methods as strings and run them with 'eval', which seems 
tricky and dangerous.

> and whoalla...  the class will be "corrected" without being edited
> directly.

What do you mean "corrected"?