On 5/12/07, Rick DeNatale <rick.denatale / gmail.com> wrote:
> On 5/12/07, Trans <transfire / gmail.com> wrote:
<snip>
> Now an interesting idea might be to add more string methods to Symbol
> so that for example one could do

:a <=> :b and including Compareable automatically
I think that would be the most useful.
<snip>> Rick DeNatale
>
> My blog on Ruby
> http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/
>
>
For the rest I rather agree with Rick's POV.
If one subeclasses a class X with a class Y, one conceptionally says
"an instance of Y" is "an instance of X".
Could you say a Symbol is a String? No you cannot unless a Symbol
responds to all messages of a String. In other words, subclasses
extend the behavior of baseclasses they never restrict it.
Well that holds for my old OO stuff I have learnt, maybe I have to
change paradigm, but right now I am not convinced.

Cheers
Robert


-- 
You see things; and you say Why?
But I dream things that never were; and I say Why not?
-- George Bernard Shaw