[rspec-users] newbie cucumber tutorial

[Jeremiah Heller]

On 23 Dec 2008, at 18:26, Sarah Allen wrote:

> Matt Wynne wrote:
>> ActiveRecord::Validations uses a trick that's used widely in rails,
>> and is arguably[1] becoming a Ruby idiom, apparently.
>>
>> This is the interesting bit, around line #275:
>>
>>     def self.included(base) # :nodoc:
>>       base.extend ClassMethods
>>
>> So basically that means that when the class ActiveRecord::Base
>> includes the module ActiveRecord::Validations, that module extends  
>> the
>> thing which included it (in this case ActiveRecord::Base) with the
>> class methods defined in ActiveRecords::Validations::ClassMethods.
>>
>> Does that make sense?
>
> um, no.  You say that the class ActiveRecord::Base includes the module
> ActiveRecord::Validations, but I don't see that in the code I'm  
> looking
> at here:
> http://dev.rubyonrails.org/browser/branches/2-0-stable/activerecord/lib/active_record/base.rb

Try here: http://dev.rubyonrails.org/browser/branches/2-0-stable/activerecord/lib/active_record.rb
On line 42: require 'active_record/validations'

> If I assume that I'm looking at the wrong code or it happens thru some
> magic then you can make a module which will add its class methods to  
> the

> class which includes it?

I believe that's how modules work, but it's not by magic. If I'm  
reading this Ruby book (by the Pragmatic Programmer's) here correctly  
then Ruby creates a singleton class of the object calling extend  
(which I think is the reasoning behind the code referenced by Matt),  
then includes the module into that singleton class, which adds the  
instance methods of the module into the superclass chain for that  
object's class.

>  Is that some kind of trick to create multiple
> inheritance?  Is there any way without digging thru source to know  
> which
> class include methods from other classes or do y'all just get so cozy
> with every Rails class you use that you "just know?"

The Ruby classes Module and Object have some methods to determine  
other included modules, available public|private|protected methods,  
etc. if that helps.

Perhaps someone more experienced can fill in any gaps I may've missed  
- just happened to be reading about this myself...

Jeremiah