From: Chad Fowler <chad@...1.chadfowler.com>
Date: 2003-06-05T02:34:00+09:00
Subject: Re: ruby-dev summary 20201 - 20315


On Thu, 5 Jun 2003, Paul Brannan wrote:

> On Wed, Jun 04, 2003 at 06:50:39PM +0900, Mauricio Fern�ndez wrote:
> > Why not do
> > 
> > myArray = Array.clone.freeze.new
> > 
> > and then implement irb w/ myArray.
> > That way changes in Array don't affect the interpreter.
> 
> IMO, this is indicative of a more general problem than just IRB.  If
> one module changes Array, code in another module might not be compatible
> with those changes.  Ideally it should be possible to isolate changes to
> builtin classes to a single module.  I'd wager that's even harder to
> implement than it sounds, though.
> 

This topic came up at RubyConf 2001 during David Black's Ruby Behaviors 
talk.  David Simmons (creator of SmallScript or S#) suggested the need for 
something called "selector namespaces", which has been discussed (with 
David's input) in ruby-talk:18567.

Still interesting and still a challenge. :)

Chad