From: Lyle Johnson <lyle@...>
Date: 2003-12-03T11:57:06+09:00
Subject: Re: What's the best way to create methods dealing with an object of a certain class?

Leif K-Brooks wrote:

> I want to add a method to be run on Strings. Currently, I'm just adding 
> it on to the String class. Should I be subclassing it instead? Creating 
> a method which takes a String as an argument?

I have mixed feelings about re-opening built-in classes (like String) to 
add new methods to them, even though the provision for this is one of 
Ruby's attractions. My concern is that people get used to the built-ins 
and expect certain standard behaviors from them; augmenting or otherwise 
changing them could create confusion for other people looking at your code.

I don't think there's a "right" answer to the question. If I were in 
your situation I'd probably write a little helper method that takes the 
string as an input argument.

Jusy my $0.02,

Lyle