From: Paul Brannan <pbrannan@...>
Date: 2002-09-20T01:48:29+09:00
Subject: Re: Is better to subclass or to add methods to an existing class?

On Fri, Sep 20, 2002 at 01:20:37AM +0900, William Djaja Tjokroaminata wrote:
> Actually, because in Ruby a class definition is never closed, don't we
> fundamentally have a similar problem (although possibly with much less
> probability, especially when module is used) by subclassing as adding a
> method?  In other words, the name of subclass that we create may already
> be used as a name of some other class.

You can create the subclass inside a "namespace", e.g.:

  module MyProject
    class String < ::String
      ...
    end
  end

You can also create an anonymous subclass:

  class Foo
    @@my_string = Class.new(String)
  end

Paul