From: Joel VanderWerf <vjoel@...>
Date: 2003-06-01T08:04:16+09:00
Subject: [RCR] attr_reader :foo?


Would it make sense for attr_reader and friends to associate :foo? with 
the attribute "@foo" ?

Consider the following code:

   class C
     attr_accessor :foo?
     def initialize
       @foo = true
     end
   end

   c = C.new
   p c.foo?               # ==> false
   c.send("foo?=", true)
   p c.foo?               # ==> true
   p c.instance_variables # ["@foo"]

You can call the reader. You have to bend over backwards to call the 
writer. You cannot access the attribute itself from within method 
definitions. You can't even see that it exists using #instance_variables.

Since the use of attr_accessor construct is so pointless in this case, 
why not change the semantics:

   "attr_reader :foo?" defines a method #foo? which gets
   the value of @foo,

   "attr_writer :foo?" defines a method #foo= which sets
   the value of @foo.

This would not affect existing code because currently attr_* can't 
effectively be used on a symbol ending in "?".