From: "Jan E." <lists@...>
Date: 2012-07-01T17:19:58+09:00
Subject: Re: Accessor Methods with a Twist

Doug Jolley wrote in post #1066832:
> The thing is this: I have this object (i.e., an instance of a class).
> This particular instance is used for a multitude of purposes.  Among
> them is that the instance is needed by several methods contained in a
> module.  The methods of the module will never require any other
> instance.  They always require only this particular instance.  I guess I
> could pass the instance to each of these methods that needs it as an
> argument.  Since there are so many of the methods of the module that
> need the instance, I was hoping that there might be another more
> sanitary way of doing it.

I don't see why you want to use a module for this. I'd rather use a 
*class* and pass the object to the initialize method. You can then save 
it in an instance variable and use it in any method.

For example:

# create a database connection
database = Database.new username: 'root', passwort: '123456'
# create an instance of PictureArchive and pass it the database object
picture_archive = PictureArchive.new database
# the picture archive can now use the database connection
my_holiday_pictures = picture_archive.search year: 2011

I think you should only use modules for three things: as a namespace, as 
a collection of "static" functions (like Math) or as mixin to provide 
methods to classes (like Enumerable).

Your description doesn't fit any of these cases. But again: If you tell 
use what you actually want to do, we can think about alternative 
solutions. Or is it a secret?

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