Extending object with another object

Ruby
1

Hi,

How is it possible to extend an object using another object?

I know I can iterate the public methods of one and define them (or maybe
clone, and bind) in the other, but I’m looking for something that will
work more closely to how ‘extend’ works.

Thanks,

Ittay

2

Ittay D. wrote:

How is it possible to extend an object using another object?

It depends exactly on what you’re trying to achieve.

You have two separate objects, both with their own sets of methods and
their own sets of instance variables. In what way do you want to
“extend” the first with the second? What happens to instance variables
belonging to the second object?

Now, if you simply want a call to method X on object A to be forwarded
to object B (in which context it would use object B’s instance
variables), then look at delegate.rb, or you can synthesise this pattern
yourself using method_missing

class A
def hello
puts “hello”
end
end

class B
def bye
puts “bye”
end
end

a = A.new
b = B.new

This is a rough implementation of SimpleDelegator

def a.other=(x)
@other=x
end
def a.method_missing(*args)
@other.send(*args)
end

a.other = b
a.hello
a.bye

The important thing here is that when methods are delegated to the other
object, they will be in the context of that object and hence have access
to that object’s instance variables. Put simply, that object will
“work”.

In cases where the methods by themselves make sense, then generally
you’d stick those methods into a Module so that both a and b could make
use of them.

class A
include MyStuff
end
…
b = B.new
b.extend MyStuff

But clearly you know about this already.

3

Brian C. wrote:

belonging to the second object?

I want just to get the methods defined in the second object, something
like
object.extend(as_module(other_object))

where ‘as_module’ is some method that returns a module representing the
class hierarchy (with singletons) of the other object.

class A
def initialize(name)
@name = name
end
def hi
puts @name
end
end

class B
def initialize(name)
@name = name
end
end

a = A.new(‘a’)
b = B.new(‘b’)
b.object_extend(a)
b.hi #=> ‘b’

Ittay

def a.other=(x)
The important thing here is that when methods are delegated to the other
end
…
b = B.new
b.extend MyStuff

But clearly you know about this already.

–
Ittay D. [email protected]
Tikal http://www.tikalk.com
Tikal Project http://tikal.sourceforge.net

4

Ittay D. wrote:

Brian C. wrote:

belonging to the second object?

I want just to get the methods defined in the second object, something
like
object.extend(as_module(other_object))

where ‘as_module’ is some method that returns a module representing the
class hierarchy (with singletons) of the other object.

But I still don’t know what the purpose of this is, i.e. what actual
problem you’re trying to solve, and without that I can’t propose a
better solution.

What you’re asking for is not especially easy to do. I guess you could
iterate over the methods of B, obtain UnboundMethod objects, and bind
them to A. But I’ve never come across any situation where I’ve needed
(or wanted) to do this.

5

On Oct 22, 3:52 am, Ittay D. [email protected] wrote:

Hi,

How is it possible to extend an object using another object?

I know I can iterate the public methods of one and define them (or maybe
clone, and bind) in the other, but I’m looking for something that will
work more closely to how ‘extend’ works.

You have to use delegation. Look up delegate.rb.

T.