Avdi Grimm wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> I wrote a blog post with the intentionally provocative title above,
> which can be found here:
> 
> http://avdi.org/devblog/?p=18
> 
> While the title is a bit of deliberate hyperbole, I am genuinely
> troubled about the popularization of monkey patching in the Ruby
> community.  I explain my reasons more thoroughly in the post, but
> here's a synopsis:
> 
>   Monkeypatching has become the hip thing to do in the
>   Ruby and (especially?) Rails communities, and it has
>   reached the point where experienced programmers are
>   turning to it as the tool of first resort *even* when there
>   is a simpler, more traditional solution available.  I
>   suggest that it's time for Ruby hackers to start setting a
>   better example.
> 
> My hope with this post is to start a conversation about fostering
> robust software extension mechanisms in the Ruby ecosystem.  I welcome
> any comments, both here and on the blog.
> 

One of my friends once passed this little quotation on to me:

"Always code as if the person who will maintain your code is a violent 
psychopath who knows where you live."