Forum: Ruby-core [ruby-trunk - Feature #7998][Open] "def" should return a value (the symbol of the method name) inste

Issue #7998 has been reported by pmarreck (Peter Marreck).

----------------------------------------
Feature #7998: "def" should return a value (the symbol of the method 
name) instead of nil
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/7998

Author: pmarreck (Peter Marreck)
Status: Open
Priority: Normal
Assignee:
Category:
Target version: next minor


The C code that implements Ruby method definitions already creates a 
symbol corresponding to the method name.

I propose that the "def... end" block returns this symbol.

This would allow the following elegant Ruby code:

protected def foo(); end

private def bar(); end

since "protected" and "private" already take symbol arguments.

I estimate that this would be extremely easy to implement while creating 
extremely minimal existing code impact.

I proposed this idea to the #ruby IRC channel on freenode.net and it was 
received very well, they encouraged me to file this ticket! Thank you 
for considering.

Issue #7998 has been updated by Student (Nathan Zook).


+1

While the proposed usage is good, I immediately thought about this:

new_meth_name = module_eval <<-RUBY
 def prefix_#{val}_postfix
   ...
 end
RUBY

----------------------------------------
Feature #7998: "def" should return a value (the symbol of the method 
name) instead of nil
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/7998#change-37275

Author: pmarreck (Peter Marreck)
Status: Open
Priority: Normal
Assignee:
Category:
Target version: next minor


The C code that implements Ruby method definitions already creates a 
symbol corresponding to the method name.

I propose that the "def... end" block returns this symbol.

This would allow the following elegant Ruby code:

protected def foo(); end

private def bar(); end

since "protected" and "private" already take symbol arguments.

I estimate that this would be extremely easy to implement while creating 
extremely minimal existing code impact.

I proposed this idea to the #ruby IRC channel on freenode.net and it was 
received very well, they encouraged me to file this ticket! Thank you 
for considering.

Issue #7998 has been updated by trans (Thomas Sawyer).


=begin
It has been suggested long long ago. Probably more than once. Here is a 
link to one: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/3753.

Once we start looking at code like that for a while will we then start 
to think, why not just:

    public foo()
      ...
    end

    protected foo()
      ...
    end

    private bar()
      ...
    end

=end

----------------------------------------
Feature #7998: "def" should return a value (the symbol of the method 
name) instead of nil
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/7998#change-37276

Author: pmarreck (Peter Marreck)
Status: Open
Priority: Normal
Assignee:
Category:
Target version: next minor


The C code that implements Ruby method definitions already creates a 
symbol corresponding to the method name.

I propose that the "def... end" block returns this symbol.

This would allow the following elegant Ruby code:

protected def foo(); end

private def bar(); end

since "protected" and "private" already take symbol arguments.

I estimate that this would be extremely easy to implement while creating 
extremely minimal existing code impact.

I proposed this idea to the #ruby IRC channel on freenode.net and it was 
received very well, they encouraged me to file this ticket! Thank you 
for considering.

This is a nice addition indeed and I remember I asked for it too in the
past. One usage could be method annotation like what is done in some
command line library:

desc 'Do something'
def do_something
  ...
end

The above code looks nice but I believe the underlying code involves
using method_added and is fragile when method_added is also used for
other functionalities.

If def returns method name, then a comma is all we need to remove the
meta-programming complexity.

desc 'Do something',
def do_something
  ...
end

I really wish one day this will be added to Ruby.

Regards,
Cao

Issue #7998 has been updated by gcao (Guoliang Cao).


This is a nice addition indeed and I remember I asked for it too in the
past. One usage could be method annotation like what is done in some
command line library:

desc 'Do something'
def do_something
  ...
end

The above code looks nice but I believe its underlying code involves
using method_added and is fragile when method_added is also used for
other functionalities.

If def returns method name, then a comma is all we need to remove the
meta-programming complexity.

desc 'Do something',
def do_something
  ...
end

I really wish one day this will be added to Ruby.
----------------------------------------
Feature #7998: "def" should return a value (the symbol of the method 
name) instead of nil
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/7998#change-37412

Author: pmarreck (Peter Marreck)
Status: Open
Priority: Normal
Assignee:
Category:
Target version: next minor


The C code that implements Ruby method definitions already creates a 
symbol corresponding to the method name.

I propose that the "def... end" block returns this symbol.

This would allow the following elegant Ruby code:

protected def foo(); end

private def bar(); end

since "protected" and "private" already take symbol arguments.

I estimate that this would be extremely easy to implement while creating 
extremely minimal existing code impact.

I proposed this idea to the #ruby IRC channel on freenode.net and it was 
received very well, they encouraged me to file this ticket! Thank you 
for considering.

Issue #7998 has been updated by kernigh (George Koehler).


=begin
I have a problem with this feature.

 module Frog
   private def self.sound
     "Ribbit!"
   end
 end

With this feature, def..end would return :sound, then private :sound 
would set Frog#sound to private.  This is wrong.  I defined Frog::sound, 
not Frog#sound.  Surprise!  There is no way for private :sound to know 
that I defined a metamethod, not an instance method; because def..end 
only returned a Symbol, not the whole definition.  With this feature, 
"private def" only works for instance methods, not for metamethods.
=end

----------------------------------------
Feature #7998: "def" should return a value (the symbol of the method 
name) instead of nil
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/7998#change-37547

Author: pmarreck (Peter Marreck)
Status: Open
Priority: Normal
Assignee:
Category:
Target version: next minor


The C code that implements Ruby method definitions already creates a 
symbol corresponding to the method name.

I propose that the "def... end" block returns this symbol.

This would allow the following elegant Ruby code:

protected def foo(); end

private def bar(); end

since "protected" and "private" already take symbol arguments.

I estimate that this would be extremely easy to implement while creating 
extremely minimal existing code impact.

I proposed this idea to the #ruby IRC channel on freenode.net and it was 
received very well, they encouraged me to file this ticket! Thank you 
for considering.