From: Greg Brondo <greg@...>
Date: 2004-04-01T02:29:21+09:00
Subject: script loading question

I like working in the style of Java (one class per file) for some projects
and I've emulated it for an email/webagent app.  What I'm wondering is if
there is a *better* or *builtin* way to do this.  Here is my code:

def loadAgents(path)
    Dir[path + "*Agent.rb"].each { |agent|
        agent = File.basename(agent)
        if agent =~ /^((\w+)Agent)\.rb/
            require $1
            $agentFactory[$2.downcase] = $1
        end
    }
end

I initialize '$agentFactory' to '{}' and add 'lib/' to $: before calling
loadAgents().  Then I can 'object = agentFactory[request].new()'.  Also I
can add agents just by writing the class in a new agent file in lib and
restarting.

I guess another question would be how can I reload 'lib/' without
restarting?  Does 'load' replace class definitions (it seems require is a
'one time thing')?

Thanks! (I hope that made sense -- it does in my mind, but that's where I
live -- not you ;-)

Greg B.