From: Kevin Smith <sent@...>
Date: 2000-12-20T11:53:50+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:7732] Re: String as IO and/or File object?

Robert Feldt <feldt@ce.chalmers.se> wrote:
>Is there a simple way to access a string as an IO and/or File object? If
>not have you seen any code for doing it?

I'll take a stab at this. My background is in 
static languages like C++, so hopefully I'll get 
it right.

What does it mean to access a string as an IO? I 
think it just means that you want to have an 
object that could be a string, or could be an IO, 
and treat it the same for both cases. In a static 
language, you'd have to use an interface (Java) 
or a common parent class (C++).

In Ruby, both the string and IO classes support a 
few of the same methods: <<, each, each_byte, 
each_line. If you restrict your access to just 
these methods, then you can act on a variable 
that contains a string or an IO and not know the 
difference.

Maybe you want to do something not on this list, 
like...um...puts. In that case, I might create a 
class IOString that inherits from String. I would 
then define an IOString#puts method that does the 
right thing (probably appends the passed 
parameter and a newline).

If that doesn't answer your question, please 
indicate what methods of IO you would like to 
apply to a string.

Kevin