From: Jeremy Henty <jeremy@...>
Date: 2003-01-12T22:29:09+09:00
Subject: Strange message when superclass expression raises an error

I was using "class Foo < foo ... end" where "foo" is some arbitrary
expression, not necessarily a constant.  I found that when "foo"
raises an error the result is quite (IMHO) misleading.  For example:

irb(main):001:0> def foo ; raise "foo" end
=> nil
irb(main):002:0> Class.new(foo)
RuntimeError: foo
	from (irb):1:in `foo'
	from (irb):2
irb(main):003:0> class Foo < foo ; end
TypeError: superclass undefined
	from (irb):1
irb(main):004:0> 

"superclass undefined"?  What happened to the real error?  If Ruby had
reported the original error properly it would have saved me a certain
amount of frustration.  Surely the error should simply propagate to
top level, just as when calling Class.new(foo) ?

Regards, 

Jeremy Henty