Scope of constants in instance_eval

I’m writing a DSL, and I want to use some constants. To be clean, I
don’t want to pollute the global constant space. To be tight, I also
don’t want the user to have to scope the constant using Foo::BAR, but
instead be able to use just BAR.

The following surprised me. As the scope of the block is an instance of
Foo, I had hoped/assumed that it would have access too Foo’s constants.
Alas, no.

class Foo
BAR = 1
def initialize( &block )
instance_eval &block
end
def bork
puts “bork: self is #{self}”
puts “bork: BAR is #{BAR}!”
end
end

Foo.new{
bork
puts “block: self is #{self}”
puts “block: BAR is #{BAR}!”
}

#=> bork: self is #Foo:0x32c808
#=> bork: BAR is 1!
#=> block: self is #Foo:0x32c808
#=> NameError: uninitialized constant BAR

For now, I’ll just shove my constants into global space before the
instance_eval, and remove them afterwards. Is there a better/cleaner
way to accomplish my goals?

On Feb 26, 2006, at 11:23 AM, Phrogz wrote:

class Foo
BAR = 1
def initialize( &block )
instance_eval &block
end
def bork
puts “bork: self is #{self}”
puts “bork: BAR is #{BAR}!”

Hmm, that could be a bug in ruby because

p BAR

works.

end
end

Foo.new{
bork
puts “block: self is #{self}”
puts “block: BAR is #{BAR}!”
}

Jim F.

Jim F. wrote:

Hmm, that could be a bug in ruby because

p BAR

works.

Hrm? Not on my machine.

class Foo
BAR = 1
def initialize( &block )
instance_eval &block
end
def bork
puts “bork: self is #{self}”
puts “bork: BAR is #{BAR}!”
end
end

Foo.new{
bork
puts “block: self is #{self}”
#puts “block: BAR is #{BAR}!”
p BAR
}

#=> bork: self is #Foo:0x32af44
#=> bork: BAR is 1!
#=> block: self is #Foo:0x32af44
#=> NameError: uninitialized constant BAR

For those interested in doing the same, I’ve hacked up a quick method
for promoting the constants of a class/module to the main Object scope,
and then restoring the original values.

You can:

  • Automatically promote all constants of the class/module
  • Promote only specific constants
  • Choose to explicitly restore the constants or
  • Supply a block that will be yielded to before the constants are
    automatically restored

class Module

Push the constants of this class/module up to global space

saving any original values in Object for later restoration

If no names are supplied, all constants in this class/module

are promoted.

If a block is supplied, it will be yielded to before automatically

restoring the global scope to its pristine state.

def promote_constants( *const_names )
const_names.flatten!
const_names = self.constants if const_names.empty?
@_original_constant_values = {}
const_names.each { |name|
if self.const_defined?( name )
if Object.const_defined?( name )
@_original_constant_values[ name ] = Object.const_get( name )

    end
    Object.const_set( name, self.const_get( name ) )
  else
    warn "Cannot promote non-existent constant '#{name}'"
  end
}
if block_given?
  yield
  restore_constants
end

end

Restore Object’s constants to undo the effects of

#promote_constants
def restore_constants( *const_names )
return unless @_original_constant_values
const_names.flatten!
const_names = self.constants if const_names.empty?
const_names.each { |name|
if val=@_original_constant_values[ name ]
Object.const_set( name, val )
else
Object.instance_eval{
remove_const( name )
}
end
}
@_original_constant_values = nil
end
end

Evaling as a string works. (Constant is resolved.)

On Feb 26, 2006, at 12:08 PM, Phrogz wrote:

Jim F. wrote:

Hmm, that could be a bug in ruby because

p BAR

works.

Hrm? Not on my machine.

Hmm, even more interesting. Change the following:

class Foo
BAR = 1
def initialize( &block )
def initialize(str)
instance_eval &block
instance_eval str
end
def bork
puts “bork: self is #{self}”
puts “bork: BAR is #{BAR}!”
end
end

Foo.new{
Foo.new %Q{
bork
puts “block: self is #{self}”
#puts “block: BAR is #{BAR}!”
p BAR
}

Now what do you get?

#=> bork: self is #Foo:0x32af44
#=> bork: BAR is 1!
#=> block: self is #Foo:0x32af44
#=> NameError: uninitialized constant BAR

Jim F.

Phrogz wrote:

I’m writing a DSL, and I want to use some constants. To be clean, I
don’t want to pollute the global constant space. To be tight, I also
don’t want the user to have to scope the constant using Foo::BAR, but
instead be able to use just BAR.

The following surprised me. As the scope of the block is an instance of
Foo, I had hoped/assumed that it would have access too Foo’s constants.
Alas, no.

class Foo
BAR = 1
def initialize( &block )
instance_eval &block
end
def bork
puts “bork: self is #{self}”
puts “bork: BAR is #{BAR}!”
end
end

Foo.new{
bork
puts “block: self is #{self}”
puts “block: BAR is #{BAR}!”
}

#=> bork: self is #Foo:0x32c808
#=> bork: BAR is 1!
#=> block: self is #Foo:0x32c808
#=> NameError: uninitialized constant BAR

For now, I’ll just shove my constants into global space before the
instance_eval, and remove them afterwards. Is there a better/cleaner
way to accomplish my goals?

Just a constant lookup issue for a closure. Doing
this would also work:

puts “Block: BAR is #{self.class.const_get ‘BAR’}”

Though it may not be the cleanest solution :slight_smile:

E

“Phrogz” [email protected] writes:

Evaling as a string works. (Constant is resolved.)

But only in 1.9, if I understand you correctly.

g@crash:~/tmp$ cat test.rb
class C
def initialize &b
instance_eval(&b)
end
X = 2
end

C.new{puts eval(‘X’)}
g@crash:~/tmp$ ruby -v test.rb
ruby 1.8.4 (2005-12-24) [i686-linux]
test.rb:8: (eval):1: uninitialized constant X (NameError)
from test.rb:3:in eval' from test.rb:8 from test.rb:3:in initialize’
from test.rb:8
g@crash:~/tmp$ ruby19 -v test.rb
ruby 1.9.0 (2006-02-15) [i686-linux]
2

Hi,

In message “Re: Scope of constants in instance_eval”
on Mon, 27 Feb 2006 02:23:34 +0900, “Phrogz” [email protected]
writes:

|class Foo
| BAR = 1
| def initialize( &block )
| instance_eval &block
| end
| def bork
| puts “bork: self is #{self}”
| puts “bork: BAR is #{BAR}!”
| end
|end
|
|Foo.new{
| bork
| puts “block: self is #{self}”
| puts “block: BAR is #{BAR}!”
|}
|
|#=> bork: self is #Foo:0x32c808
|#=> bork: BAR is 1!
|#=> block: self is #Foo:0x32c808
|#=> NameError: uninitialized constant BAR

In 1.8, constant uses lexical look-up, even within the block given to
instance_eval(). We changed this behavior in 1.9 to simplify things.

						matz.

George O. [email protected] writes:

“Phrogz” [email protected] writes:

Evaling as a string works. (Constant is resolved.)

But only in 1.9, if I understand you correctly.

Sorry, I see this follows on from Jim’s post.

Here’s a silly idea that might make your other syntax work.

$bindings = []
def Object.const_missing(name)
if $bindings.empty?
raise NameError, “uninitialized constant #{name}”
end
binding = $bindings.pop
eval(name.to_s, binding)
ensure
$bindings.push(binding)
end

class C
def initialize &b
$bindings.push binding
instance_eval(&b)
ensure
$bindings.pop
end
X = 2
end

C.new{puts X}