From: "Lipper, Matthew" <mlipper@...>
Date: 2004-01-06T04:42:26+09:00
Subject: Basic Syntax for Extending Instances

Hey everybody,

Given the following extension to the Date class:

class Date
	
  attr_accessor :date_precision
	
  class << self; alias_method :old_civil, :civil end

  def self.civil(*args)
    #How to make this visible?	  
    @date_precision = args.shift		
    puts "#{@date_precision}" if($VERBOSE)  # >> DAY_OF_MONTH

    return old_civil(*args)		
  end
	
end

date = Date.civil("DAY_OF_MONTH",2004,2,5)

#Doh!
puts date.date_precision # >> nil

What is the proper syntax to make the date_precision attribute visible to
the caller? I'm still trying to wrap my head around the notion of open
classes and extending object instances...
		
Matt