Modify existing types (no meta-programming)

[guest]

What is it about? Why not add links to related documentation section?

[Carson Gross]

It is referring to enhancements, which can be used to add methods and properties to existing classes.  The methods really end up as static methods that are invoked with the object in question, and do not dispatch dynamically, but are useful to add application specific behavior to existing classes or to address shortcomings of existing classes.

Documentation is here:

  http://gosu-lang.org/doc/wwhelp/wwhimpl/api.htm?&context=gosu&src=enhancements&topic=Using_Enhancements

This is how certain methods got onto core java classes, such as:

  var f = new File( "/tmp/foo.txt" )

  f.write( "That was easy" ) // <-- an enhancement method from CoreFileEnhancement.gsx

Good idea adding links.  We've been focused more on the release and less on the website lately, but we'll be improving it based on feedback.

As an aside, using enhancements to add methods to an existing type is colloquially referred to as "donkey patching" (vs. monkey patching in dynamic languages.)

Cheers,

Carson

On Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 5:42 AM, guest <mlk...@gmail.com> wrote:

What is it about? Why not add links to related documentation section?

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