Ruby Forum Ruby > Nested Mixin Problem(?)

Hi,

could someone check and comment if this is something that i don't
understand well or a ruby "somehow" problem? please

Here's the code:

module A
  def a; :a; end
end

module B
  include A
  def b; :b; end
end

module C
  def c; :c; end
end

class D
  include B
end

D.new.a #=> :a     ## Ok for me
D.new.b #=> :b     ## Ok for me

module B
  include C
end

D.new.c #=> NoMethodError: undefined method `c' for #<D:0xb7cb985c>  ##
This is not ok for me.

Thanks,
Vasco Andrade e Silva

Dear Vasco,

it seems like you wanted to include something before it is
defined.
The following worked for me:

module A
  def a; :a; end
end

module B
  include A
  def b; :b; end
end

module C
  def c; :c; end
end

module B  #   <------  interchanged these
  include C
end

class D        # <------ interchanged these
  include B
end

D.new.a #=> :a     ## Ok for me
D.new.b #=> :b     ## Ok for me


p D.new.c  #=>:c   ## Ok for you?


Best regards,

Axel

On 2 Jul 2007, at 10:51, Vasco Andrade e Silva wrote:

>
>   include B
> 0xb7cb985c>  ##
> This is not ok for me.
>
> Thanks,
> Vasco Andrade e Silva
>
> -- 
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>

I think you've found an interesting edge case for modules and mixins.
Redefining a module only seems to work to one 'level'. So this works:

irb(main):001:0> module FooBar
irb(main):002:1> end
=> nil
irb(main):003:0> class Baz
irb(main):004:1> include FooBar
irb(main):005:1> end
=> Baz
irb(main):006:0> a = Baz.new
=> #<Baz:0x330568>
irb(main):007:0> module FooBar
irb(main):008:1> def foo; :foo; end
irb(main):009:1> end
=> nil
irb(main):010:0> a.foo
=> :foo

But not here (analogous to your example I think):

irb(main):011:0> module Bar
irb(main):012:1> def bar; :bar; end
irb(main):013:1> end
=> nil
irb(main):014:0> module FooBar
irb(main):015:1> include Bar
irb(main):016:1> end
=> FooBar
irb(main):017:0> a.bar
NoMethodError: undefined method `bar' for #<Baz:0x330568>
         from (irb):18

We need a guru to explain why...

Alex Gutteridge

Bioinformatics Center
Kyoto University

<snip>
> irb(main):016:1> end
> => FooBar
> irb(main):017:0> a.bar
> NoMethodError: undefined method `bar' for #<Baz:0x330568>
>          from (irb):18
>
> We need a guru to explain why...
That is definitely not me, but there was a very interesting thread by
Tom (aka Trans) very recently and Pit provided a nice metaprogramming
tool to address the issue which is called "double inclusion". [ Sorry
I am bad at finding references to threads :( ]

As a matter of fact there is an easy way to update the method lookup 
chain
just continue as follows in your irb session:

irb(main):019:0> class Baz
irb(main):020:1> include FooBar # Play it again Sam
irb(main):021:1> end
=> Baz
irb(main):022:0> a.bar
=> :bar

It has something to do with the proxies that are created for included
modules, maybe a Guru will explain this in detail.

Cheers
Robert

Hi,

Axel Etzold wrote:
> it seems like you wanted to include something before it is
> defined.

No. I wanted to use mixins for more than 'one level', as Alex Gutteridge 
explain it:
>I think you've found an interesting edge case for modules and mixins.
>Redefining a module only seems to work to one 'level'. So this works:
> ...

I didn't know that this "problem" was called "double inclusion" (thanks 
Robert) or "Dynamic Module Include Problem". After a quick search for 
"double inclusion" you get:
http://eigenclass.org/hiki/The+double+inclusion+problem
http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/112897

If some Guru come along and see this thread maybe he/she could give a 
more indepth answer.

Meanwhile...
Thank you guys,
Vasco