From: Ammar Ali <ammarabuali@...>
Date: 2010-10-18T03:42:07+09:00
Subject: Re: Is it possible to find out if an identifier is a method alias?

On Sat, Oct 16, 2010 at 4:19 PM, David A. Black <dblack@rubypal.com> wrote:
> I could be wrong, and haven't dug into the code, but I've always had the
> impression that (by design) there's no difference between different ways
> to refer to a method. It's not that the alias is a kind of nickname for
> the "real" name; it *is* (one of) the real name(s).

You inspired me to take a look and you are right on. alias just
creates a new entry for the same method into the target's method
table. There is nothing in the entry that distinguishes it as an
alias.

> In 1.9.2, anyway, #instance_methods seems to list methods in the order
> they were created/aliased, though I don't know whether this is
> guaranteed:

The methods are always copied in the order they were defined (using
rb_ary_push). I guess that's guaranteed enough for a hack. Based on
the equality Daniel pointed out and the ordering you did, I took a jab
at it:

  http://gist.github.com/631102

Thanks,
Ammar