I think i heard that this may change in a later version of ruby. Refinements are designed to reduce the impact of monkey patching on other. In ruby, the term monkey patch was misunderstood to mean any dynamic modification to a class and is often used as a synonym for dynamically modifying any class at runtime. I have added two small helpers for working with numbers but i found that i had to. Jul 11, 2008 ruby s open classes are powerful but can easily be misused. These are two different concepts programming approaches. This is my take on what i consider to be best practice.
Monkey patching fixnum and bignum without duplication ruby monkeypatching. Whats the largest integer that fits inside a fixnum. I havent, but it comes really useful when testing, to simulate sideeffecting functions or. The above statement asserts that the ruby usage is incorrect but terms evolve, and thats not always a bad thing. Due to rubys open classes you can redefine or add functionality to existing classes. Monkeypatching is the technique of swapping functions or methods with others in order to change a module, library or class behavior there are some people with strong opinions about it. This is a community driven project, so you are encouraged to. For example, lets say you frequently have the need to calculate factorials. For text, whether it be a single letter or a book, ruby has the string class. How to monkey patch a class in ruby solid foundation web. As such, this page will be updated on a regular basis to include additional information and cover emerging ruby techniques. As i further integrate mojombojekyll into my website pipeline, im finding more of a need to extend it.
Ruby journal howtoopenslashoverrideslashmonkeypatchaclassinruby. This is a nice syntax, although it makes some people cross as it. Before insulting a language because its not possible to monkey patch in it. In ruby, a monkey patch mp is any dynamic modification to a class and is often used as a synonym for dynamically modifying any class add new or overwrite existing. It shouldnt be that big of a leap to realize that we shouldnt monkey patch our own objects either, and for the same reasons, because its better when. In addition, ruby doesnt treat core classes any differently from userdefined classes, so this gives you a lot of power to completely change the behaviour ruby.
When used at the top level of your code, its affects are scoped only to the current file from that point on to the end and not in any other code you require from other files. But just for fun well use rubys open class behavior to monkey patch fixnum s implementation. In below text, well use term monkey patch for changing behavior of some ruby classes and modules you havent written, whether it be core classes, or standard library ones, or classes of thirdparty library, gem, framework. They should be seen as a single class integer like flonum i like this very much. Its provocative because i want to get people talking about this issue. Refinements due to rubys open classes you can redefine or add functionality to existing classes. Duck typing a programming concept that is primarily concerned with the methods that can be run on an object rather than the class of the object. Sep 11, 2015 i opened up the irb and fired in simple arithmetic operations. I opened up the irb and fired in simple arithmetic operations. Other forms of modifying classes at runtime have different names. Monkey patching fixnum and bignum without duplication stack. Refinements ruby monkeypatching redifined red panthers.
He has said that he had not applied the principle of least astonishment to the design of ruby, but nevertheless the phrase has come to be closely associated with the ruby programming language. When we reverse it, the fixnum implementation doesnt understand what to do with a string argument. This article looks at how to minimize the risk of opening classes, alternatives, and how other languages provide similar capabilities. The ability to change the way classes behave at runtimeaka monkeypatching has been used by many libraries and frameworks to decorate rubys. One of the most useful among these specialities is that, in ruby, all classes are mutable. Monkey patching has been used for a long time for modifying code behavior, but it creates side effects in code elsewhere that ends up affected by the modified code. Until you hit weird bugs because a patch changed hash. Ruby best practices and tips from ruby experts toptal. Matsumoto has said his primary design goal was to make a language that he himself enjoyed using, by minimizing programmer work and possible confusion. Monkeypatching is destroying ruby the title of this post is intended to be deliberately provocative, as well as being a nod to steven colberts the people destroying america segments. In general routine work we dont have to worry about whether the number we are dealing with is bignum or fixnum. Were in the future, and with github and bundler there is now rarely a need to monkey patch ruby code in your applications monkey patching is the dangerousyetfrequentlyuseful technique of reopening existing classes to change or add to their behavior. In ruby, python, and many other dynamic programming languages, the term monkey patch only refers to dynamic modifications of a class or module at runtime, motivated by the intent to patch existing thirdparty code as a workaround to a bug or feature which does not act as desired.
One of the best, and worst, features of ruby is monkeypatching, extending the languages builtin classes and modules to suit your desires. Ruby allows you to both open previously defined classes and redefine any method. This process of changing classes runtime is known as monkeypatching in the ruby community. Strings are a sequence of characters denoted by single or. For rough compatibility, i defined fixnum and bignum as integer. Until recently i was under the impression that fixnum objects were like every other objects. This is an entirely different data object that wont mix with the data objects for numbers. In below text, well use term monkey patch for changing behavior of.
Unify fixnum and bignum into integer ruby issue tracking. Or perhaps you need to monkey patch a class you own. Dave allie monkey patching in ruby isnt always what it seems. Why ruby s monkey patching is better than land mines. We would like to show you a description here but the site wont allow us. I have added two small helpers for working with numbers but i found that i had to copy paste my method to make it work with both bignum and fixnum. This just makes your monkey patches much more surefire.
This resource contains a collection of ruby best practices and ruby tips provided by our toptal network members. In ruby, the term monkey patch means any dynamic modification to a class. This works mostly because most application doesnt have interest on the boundary between fixnum and bignum which vary on platforms. All users of the monkeypatched class see the same changes.
This can cause unintended sideeffects or breakage of programs. It always struck me as odd that integer is specialcased like that. A discussion emerging from one of my article made me realize that it was not the case. Clean monkey patching recently, i realised the importance of clean monkey patching in ruby. In the numbers chapter, we learned how ruby deals with numbers as fixnum and float objects. As i further integrate mojombojekyll into my website pipeline, im finding more of a need to extend it with plugins, no surprises there. There are many cases where its fine to monkey patch, but it should definitely not be your first weapon of choice. Lets have a look at the whys and hows of this proposal the power of monkey patching. Sep 28, 2016 in below text, well use term monkey patch for changing behavior of some ruby classes and modules you havent written, whether it be core classes, or standard library ones, or classes of thirdparty library, gem, framework.
Were in the future, and with github and bundler there is now rarely a need to monkeypatch ruby code in your applications. Monkeypatching is the dangerousyetfrequentlyuseful technique of reopening existing classes to change or add to their behavior. This method must always be called with an explicit receiver, as class is also a reserved word in ruby. The first argument is the object you are patching, and the second argument is the name to use for the refinement if run under ruby 2. Rubys open classes are powerful but can easily be misused. Monkey patching refers to the ability to modify existing code at runtime. Today id like to shed some light on bignum by looking at how ruby represents integers internally inside the fixnum and bignum classes. May 29, 20 how to extend the existing functionality of the fixnum class and add your own methods to it. The power of monkey patching ruby allows you to both open previously defined classes and redefine any method. How to extend the existing functionality of the fixnum class and add your own methods to it. Guerillapatch is a ruby gem to ease the transition to ruby 2. In ruby, a monkey patch mp is any dynamic modification to a class and is often used as a synonym for dynamically modifying any class add new or overwrite existing methods at runtime. But just for fun well use rubys open class behavior to monkey patch fixnums implementation. I dont use a whole lot of ruby in my day to day work, but it is a language that is very quickly growing on me for several reasons.
Why rubys monkey patching is better than land mines. Now every single time you add numbers you end up subtracting them. Jun 17, 2015 ruby has a very beautiful syntax and so it can be tempting to monkey patch a class to turn some ugly method call into something that is more readable. For most ruby developers, therefore, the bignum class is a dark, unfamiliar corner of the language. Here fixnum has been monkey patched with an function that allows it to work with dates and times. Want to monkey patch a ruby class, but hesitant of the impact of global changes. Ruby has a very beautiful syntax and so it can be tempting to monkey patch a class to turn some ugly method call into something that is more readable. I then decided to understand once and for all what fixnums were really made of. Any object id that is odd has the value stored in its upper 31 or 63 bits. The ability to change the way classes behave at runtimeaka monkeypatching has been used by many libraries and frameworks to decorate rubys core classes with additions andor replacements. Some implementations have specialcased optimizations for small arrays or hashes e.
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