Subclasses and constants

Ruby
1

Often, I find myself doing:

class RemoteCommand
def submit
sendto(URL, …)
end
end

class GetStockPriceCommand
URL = ‘http://…’
end

Which won’t work.
I’m forced to do:

sendto(self.class::URL, …)

which just seems akward. Same for using @@class_variables.

Why? More importantly, is there a better workaround?

2

List R. wrote:

Often, I find myself doing:

class RemoteCommand
def submit
sendto(URL, …)
end
end

class GetStockPriceCommand
URL = ‘http://…’
end

Which won’t work.
I’m forced to do:

sendto(self.class::URL, …)

which just seems akward. Same for using @@class_variables.

Why? More importantly, is there a better workaround?

I assume you meant: class GetStockPriceCommand < RemoteCommand

If so then the following will work:

class RemoteCommand
def submit
sendto(url, …)
end
def url
self.class::URL
end
end

class GetStockPriceCommand < RemoteCommand
URL = ‘http://…’
end

–
– Jim W.

3

Jim,

Right, that’s exactly what I meant, and that’s in fact the work around
which I’ve been using.

My question is really why I need to do this, and if there is a better
way… It forces me to decide whether I’ll ever subclass when I code
the parent, which seems unrubyish… I’d rather just code the parent,
and if the child changes the URL, so be it!

4

@@class_variables seemed to have the same behavior - if they were
changed in the subclass, and the parent defined a method, it wouldn’t
have access to the subclass’s definition.

(BTW - of course Constants don’t change - but different subclasses
could have different ones - with them never changing - but I digress)

5

On 3/27/06, [email protected] [email protected] wrote:

the parent, which seems unrubyish… I’d rather just code the parent,
and if the child changes the URL, so be it!

and that is exactly why you should not use a Constant.
Constants do not change, do they ;)?
You should use an instance variable and define accessor methods to it.
(or
class variable for that matter)
These accessor methods are then used by the superclass.
This is a classic pattern, but I do not know its name in English, sorry.

Hope this helps
Robert

–
Deux choses sont infinies : l’univers et la bêtise humaine ; en ce qui
concerne l’univers, je n’en ai pas acquis la certitude absolue.

  • Albert Einstein
6

On 3/28/06, [email protected] [email protected] wrote:

@@class_variables seemed to have the same behavior - if they were
changed in the subclass, and the parent defined a method, it wouldn’t
have access to the subclass’s definition.

(BTW - of course Constants don’t change - but different subclasses
could have different ones - with them never changing - but I digress)

No do not worry you do not, I just looked at an implementation that
might
fit your needs better, the conceptual discussion remains interesting
anyhow.
I will check out the class variable behaviour you mentioned, I was
surprised
about it.
Cheers
Robert

–
Deux choses sont infinies : l’univers et la bêtise humaine ; en ce qui
concerne l’univers, je n’en ai pas acquis la certitude absolue.

  • Albert Einstein