From: Brian Candler <B.Candler@...>
Date: 2003-02-02T00:38:57+09:00
Subject: Coercion of variables

A question.

If I have an object of class "Foo", I know I can change this object into an
anonymous subclass:

  obj = Foo.new
  class <<obj
    def wibble
      # whatever
    end
  end

  obj.wibble

However, suppose I have an existing class hierarchy: Bar is a subclass of
Foo. I want to convert obj from an instance of Foo into an instance of the
subclass Bar.

Is that possible, without creating a whole new Bar object?

(Practical example: I have defined a subclass of the TCPSocket object.
TCPServer#accept returns an object of class TCPSocket. I want to convert
this object into my own subclass)

Thanks,

Brian.