Method Definitions

[Daniel Schierbeck]

Just a little curiosity: If method definitions (`def foo; end') were to
return a symbol representing the method's name (`:foo' in this case)
rather than just nil, would this be possible?

class Klass
private def foo
"Klass#foo"
end

def bar
"Klass#bar"
end
end

obj = Klass.new
obj.bar -> "Klass#bar"
obj.foo -> private method `foo' called...


Cheers,
Daniel

 

[David A. Black]

Hi --

Just a little curiosity: If method definitions (`def foo; end') were to
return a symbol representing the method's name (`:foo' in this case) rather
than just nil, would this be possible?

class Klass
private def foo
"Klass#foo"
end

def bar
"Klass#bar"
end
end

obj = Klass.new
obj.bar -> "Klass#bar"
obj.foo -> private method `foo' called...

Yes; I think that's one of the main things people who advocate this
want to be able to do (just remembering [I think] from earlier
discussions).


David

 

[Daniel Schierbeck]

Hi --

Just a little curiosity: If method definitions (`def foo; end') were
to return a symbol representing the method's name (`:foo' in this
case) rather than just nil, would this be possible?

class Klass
private def foo
"Klass#foo"
end

def bar
"Klass#bar"
end
end

obj = Klass.new
obj.bar -> "Klass#bar"
obj.foo -> private method `foo' called...

Yes; I think that's one of the main things people who advocate this
want to be able to do (just remembering [I think] from earlier
discussions).


David

Could you point me to one of those discussions? I wonder why such a
proposal was turned down.


Cheers,
Daniel

 

[David A. Black]

Hi --

Hi --

Just a little curiosity: If method definitions (`def foo; end') were to
return a symbol representing the method's name (`:foo' in this case)
rather than just nil, would this be possible?

class Klass
private def foo
"Klass#foo"
end

def bar
"Klass#bar"
end
end

obj = Klass.new
obj.bar -> "Klass#bar"
obj.foo -> private method `foo' called...

Yes; I think that's one of the main things people who advocate this
want to be able to do (just remembering [I think] from earlier
discussions).


David

Could you point me to one of those discussions? I wonder why such a proposal
was turned down.

Search for "make def return something useful"


David

 

[Daniel Schierbeck]

Hi --

Hi --

On Fri, 18 Nov 2005, Daniel Schierbeck wrote:

Just a little curiosity: If method definitions (`def foo; end') were
to return a symbol representing the method's name (`:foo' in this
case) rather than just nil, would this be possible?

class Klass
private def foo
"Klass#foo"
end

def bar
"Klass#bar"
end
end

obj = Klass.new
obj.bar -> "Klass#bar"
obj.foo -> private method `foo' called...

Yes; I think that's one of the main things people who advocate this
want to be able to do (just remembering [I think] from earlier
discussions).


David

Could you point me to one of those discussions? I wonder why such a
proposal was turned down.

Search for "make def return something useful"


David

This seems to be it:

http://groups.google.com/group/comp...0?q="make+def+return+something+useful"&rnum=1

Though I can't really find a reason for `def' not to return a symbol.
The discussion linked to seemed pretty unfocused.

Can anyone give me a good reason *not* to have `def' return a symbol?


Cheers,
Daniel

 

[Austin Ziegler]

Just a little curiosity: If method definitions (`def foo; end') were
to return a symbol representing the method's name (`:foo' in this
case) rather than just nil, would this be possible?

class Klass
private def foo
"Klass#foo"
end

def bar
"Klass#bar"
end
end

obj =3D Klass.new
obj.bar -> "Klass#bar"
obj.foo -> private method `foo' called...

Yes; I think that's one of the main things people who advocate this
want to be able to do (just remembering [I think] from earlier
discussions).

Could you point me to one of those discussions? I wonder why such a
proposal was turned down.

As a big proponent of making def return something useful, it was turned
down in part because what would def return to be passed into private
with:

class Klass
=09private def self.foo
=09 "Klass.foo"
=09end
end

If you simply do :foo, then you would be applying private to Klass#foo
-- which isn't what you want. But returning more than :foo isn't kosher
either since private doesn't (at this point) know what to do with it.

I *think* Matz would be at least partially in favour of this if we could
figure out something useful and lightweight to return that wouldn't
prevent the above code.

-austin

 

[Trans]

I *think* Matz would be at least partially in favour of this if we could

figure out something useful and lightweight to return that wouldn't
prevent the above code.

Peter Vanbroekhoven may have firgured out the best way. He wrote a
patch to return a struct. You can find it here:

http://rubyforge.org/projects/suby/

under 'def return struct'

T.

 

[Daniel Schierbeck]

Maybe it would make "load" weird...

class Foo
def bar; end
end

# ---
load 'foo.rb' # => :bar

I don't follow... Can you elaborate?


Cheers,
Daniel