Idiom for dynamic loading of an unknown class from a known file

ruby-talk
1

I need to load a class at runtime, whose name I do not know in advance, but
all I know is a file name.
Say "a.rb" which is

class A
  ......
end

So I want to do something like (pseudo code)
- load a.rb (this will create the class object for A)
- Somehow access constant "A" and invoke "A.new"

I can think of a few hacks but none of them are elegant.
Is there an idiom for it?

TIA

2

dynaload does __exactly__ this.

gem install dynaload

-a

···

On Sun, 11 Feb 2007, Nasir Khan wrote:

I need to load a class at runtime, whose name I do not know in advance, but
all I know is a file name.
Say "a.rb" which is

class A
......
end

So I want to do something like (pseudo code)
- load a.rb (this will create the class object for A)
- Somehow access constant "A" and invoke "A.new"

I can think of a few hacks but none of them are elegant.
Is there an idiom for it?

--
we can deny everything, except that we have the possibility of being better.
simply reflect on that.
- the dalai lama

3

Nasir Khan wrote:

I need to load a class at runtime, whose name I do not know in advance, but
all I know is a file name.
Say "a.rb" which is

class A
......
end

So I want to do something like (pseudo code)
- load a.rb (this will create the class object for A)
- Somehow access constant "A" and invoke "A.new"

I can think of a few hacks but none of them are elegant.
Is there an idiom for it?

# Script
require 'script'
script = Script.load "a.rb"
script::A.new

···

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       vjoel : Joel VanderWerf : path berkeley edu : 510 665 3407