From: Matthias Veit <matthias_veit@...>
Date: 2002-06-18T04:10:01+09:00
Subject: case and classes


Hi,

today I wrote a method in my youthful levity and was wondering
about raised exceptions. The method was similar to:

def do_class_sensitive(classhandle)
   case classhandle
   when Array
      #do somethiong...
   when String
      #do somethiong...
   when Fixnum
      #do somethiong...
   else
     raise "what to do with #{classhandle.name}??"
   end
end

The aim was to write a class sensitive switch - but this does not
work. I could use the classname (the string) to make the switch work,
but this was not the intention. I could imagine, that inheritance is
the academic problem of the case-switch: falls a subclass of Array into
the Array-clause or into the else-clause? (if the specific subclass is
not listed in the switch).
So I want to ask: what is the expected behaviour of a class sensitive switch?? 

Best regards,
Matthias

_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com