Hi --

On Fri, 14 Jul 2006, Phil Tomson wrote:

> On 7/13/06, Hal Fulton <hal9000 / hypermetrics.com> wrote:
>> dblack / wobblini.net wrote:
>> >
>> > I don't know whether it qualifies as "monkeypatching" (I always
>> > thought that meant doing something sloppy and ill-advised, which I
>> > hope I'm not :-) but see if this helps:
>> 
>> Actually it was only last week that I first saw this term
>> being used in the Ruby community. I wonder if it's too
>> late to squash it?
>> 
>
> I think the term "monkypatching" as applied to this context (the
> ability to re-open existing classes in Ruby and define new methods (or
> redefine/undefine/alias existing methods) began in a Pythonista blog
> that was criticizing Ruby because this sort of thing is possible and
> done fairly frequently.
>
> Now it would appear that people are willing to wear this term 'as a badge'.

The badge looks an awful lot like the criticism....  :-)

> Did 'duck typing' have similar origins ;-)

No, that was introduced as is by Dave Thomas to characterize an
approach to Ruby programming that sought harmony with the dynamic
conditions inherent in Ruby.

As for "monkeypatching", I'm actually rooting to go in the opposite
direction: to reach a point where we don't even perceive a difference
between programming and "metaprogramming".  That seems to me to be
what's on offer from Ruby.


David

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