From: Jean-denis Vauguet <jd@...>
Date: 2010-03-21T15:39:42+09:00
Subject: Re: A plugin system using extend

Thank you Josh. Actually I've already tested what you wrote and that's 
just fine as long as what you're redefining belongs to the Base::Server 
instance (that's the purpose of :extend).

I posted a "mockup" of what I'd like in a single file: 
http://gist.github.com/339129

Basically, it's the "same" thing, but the purpose here is to redefine 
instance methods of *other classes* than the Base::Server which has the 
"include Plugins"; plus, to do so not for a particular instance of these 
classes, but for any of their instances.

Problem is: in this situation, one cannot access a particular instance 
of the class to be altered within a given plugin. In my example, this 
means the Backward plugin should alter any instance of the Base::Speaker 
class once loaded. So you've got to work at the class level somehow 
(Base::Speaker). Using :extend at this class level seems useless to me 
here (it makes plugins redefinitions available as class methods for 
Base::Speaker, not instance's); and using :include does not override the 
class' instance methods, for the plugin module is added *before* the 
class in it's inheritance chain (say: [Base::Speaker, 
Base::Plugins::Backward::SpeakerRedef, Object, Kernel] once the Backward 
plugin is loaded).

A workaround should be to undef (or alias) the original instance method 
when the plugin's module is :included, so that a call to the "original" 
method force the object to go finding the method in the plugin's module, 
but it feels clumsy to me. Maybe that's the only way to achieve this? 
After all, that was the point of alias_method_chain, wasn't it?

Enlight me :)
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