[ruby-talk:00434] Re: New feature for Ruby?

On Thu, 08 Jul 1999, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>This is not a comment for your code, sorry.  I will check it later. 
>
>In message "[ruby-talk:00431] Re: New feature for Ruby?"
>    on 99/07/07, Clemens Hintze <[e-mail]> writes:
>

[...]

>You can replace the methods of existing class.  For exapmle,
>
>  class Integer
>    def succ(n=1)
>      ...
>    end
>    alias next succ
>    def pred(n=1)
>      ...
>    end
>    alias prev pred
>  end
>
>will do the job for you.  Oh, how dynamic Ruby is. :-)

:-00000

Woah! T h a t  i s  w o n d e r f u l !!! :-)))))))))))))))))

I didn't know, that this is possible... I did know concerning
Singleton methods... but this... <cannot believe what he sees...>

But does that mean, I cannot redefine an already defined class?
Means, if I want to totaly redefine the class e.g. Regexp. Perhaps
use another regexp engine, so nothing from the old class should
remain! As I have learned now, it is not enough to simply write

   class Regexp; ...; end

That would only enhanve/modify existant methods of already existant
class Regexp, true?

What I would have to do in that case? Not that I plan to do so. Only
I want to know :-)

BTW: I have attached Interval.rb again to that mail. This time with
classes Fixnum, Float and String modificated. Now the example looks
like it should. Only I would not define a String#pred in Ruby now.
Too lazy, sorry! :-)

Thanks again for that hint... and, of course, for that feature...
and, last but not least, for Ruby! :-)))))

>
>                                                matz.

\cle

PS: Would it makes sense to introduce that feature in the
Ruby-Manual? Perhaps it is, but I cannot remember I did see that!
Furthermore please explain `alias' more a little bit. I could not see
from the manual, whether the syntax is `alias old new' or `alias new
old'.