From: "Hal E. Fulton" <hal9000@...>
Date: 2002-07-19T16:40:15+09:00
Subject: Re: #name of instance

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Sawyer" <transami@transami.net>
To: "ruby-talk ML" <ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org>
Sent: Friday, July 19, 2002 2:23 AM
Subject: Re: #name of instance


> opps, slight typo. not bob, but bobo:
> 
> class A
>   def myname
>     puts self.name  # ?
>   end
> end
> 
> bobo = A.new
> bobo.myname   # OOPS
> 
> producing:
> 
> bobo

Without some tremendous gyrations,
it's just not possible.

Remember that a variable is just a
reference to an object. 

First of all, an object has no way 
of knowing what variable might 
reference it. 

Second, there could be any number
of variables referencing the same
object.

  toto = gogo = bobo = A.new
  toto.myname  # Logically, all three
  gogo.myname  # of these must produce
  bobo.myname  # the same result.

Thirdly, there might be no variable
at all referencing the object.

  A.new.myname # What now?

So unless you're prepared to do some
weird things to associate a name with
an object when it's created, there's
just no way. Even if you *do* that, 
there are still shortcomings.

Perhaps time to rethink.

If you're not familiar with how Symbols
work in Ruby, go look that up. That 
might give you some ideas.

Cheers,
Hal