From: Paul Brannan <pbrannan@...>
Date: 2002-09-13T07:15:36+09:00
Subject: Re: not grasping the method overloading/multi-dispatch thing

On Fri, Sep 13, 2002 at 05:40:53AM +0900, Phil Tomson wrote:
> In Ruby it's not really considered a downside... it seems to be an 
> acceptable practice.

But should it be?  If I write a class, and someone modifies it, he had
better have a darn good reason for modifying it.  If everyone goes
around messing with the Integer and Float classes, how can we make any
guarantees about the behavior of Integers and Floats?

> Perhaps this idea should be proposed as an idiomatic way of 
> solving the problem - ie. "We don't need multi-methods since all classes 
> are open in Ruby".

Not all classes are open.  I sometimes freeze my classes to make sure no
one messes with them behind my back.

Paul