From: Einar Karttunen <ekarttun@...>
Date: 2003-02-12T00:45:10+09:00
Subject: Re: CLOS-like system & Ruby

On 12.02 00:19, Gour wrote:
> I'm not familiar with the CLOS, but just want to re-write one CLisp
> application in Ruby (xindy index processsor).

Ruby and CL have often different ways of expressing things naturally.
So the easiest idioms and patterns will probably differ a bit.
CLOS is centered around general functions and multiple dispatch, 
while Ruby object system uses methods in classes with single dispatch. 

> a) the ability to define methods at run-time using the macro expansion
> mechanism

Ruby has eval and the ablity to inject methods into objects. So you can
emulate that in ruby to an extent, but it may not be very natural. 

> b) the "eql"-specialisation feature that allows specialisation of
> methods down to single instances of a class, and

You can redefine methods on a per object basis in Ruby. This should
provide facilities comparable to eql-specialisation. 

> c) the multi-method dispatching paradigm

No. You can play around and simulate multiple dispatching but its not
supported in Ruby (or in most other main stream languages). 

- Einar Karttunen