Problem with inner classes

ruby-talk
1

I’m having a problem defining inner classes. The outer class is a
child of another class, which makes reusing the name for defining
inner classes a little cumbersome.

For example, if the outer class is:

class OuterClass < AbstractOuterClass
…
end

and in InnerClass.rb I have:

class OuterClass
class InnerClass
…
end
end

I get the following error:

warning: already initialized constant OuterClass

… which I’m assuming comes from the fact that the interpreter
thinks I want to redefine OuterClass as having no parent. If I change
my InnerClass code to

class OuterClass < AbstractOuterClass
class InnerClass
…
end
end

… then it works. Which is fine, except I have maybe 20 inner
classes and I’d rather not duplicate the OuterClass inheritance in
each file.

Any ways I can get around this?

Thanks,

Francis

2

Hi,

···

In message “problem with inner classes” on 02/06/18, Francis Hwang sera@fhwang.net writes:

For example, if the outer class is:

class OuterClass < AbstractOuterClass
…
end

and in InnerClass.rb I have:

class OuterClass
class InnerClass
…
end
end

I get the following error:

warning: already initialized constant OuterClass

Which version of Ruby are you using? You will get no error on 1.6.7
or 1.7.2

						matz.
3

I’m curious why you have that many “inner” classes. Mind sharing?

If I had 20 of them and they were substantial enough to deserve their own
files, I think I would have put them inside a module instead of inside a
class. At least in the scenarios I can think of.

k

“Francis Hwang” sera@fhwang.net wrote in message
news:a05100303b933cd300ae6@[10.0.1.6]…

···

I’m having a problem defining inner classes. The outer class is a
child of another class, which makes reusing the name for defining
inner classes a little cumbersome.

For example, if the outer class is:

class OuterClass < AbstractOuterClass
…
end

and in InnerClass.rb I have:

class OuterClass
class InnerClass
…
end
end

I get the following error:

warning: already initialized constant OuterClass

… which I’m assuming comes from the fact that the interpreter
thinks I want to redefine OuterClass as having no parent. If I change
my InnerClass code to

class OuterClass < AbstractOuterClass
class InnerClass
…
end
end

… then it works. Which is fine, except I have maybe 20 inner
classes and I’d rather not duplicate the OuterClass inheritance in
each file.

Any ways I can get around this?

Thanks,

Francis

4

This (of course) works:
class Abstract
end
class Outer
end
class Outer < Abstract
end

I think he wants this to work too:
class Abstract
end
class Outer < Abstract
end
class Outer
end

That working would suprise me, personally.

k

“Yukihiro Matsumoto” matz@ruby-lang.org wrote in message
news:1024411192.423217.7543.nullmailer@picachu.netlab.jp…

···

Hi,

In message “problem with inner classes” > on 02/06/18, Francis Hwang sera@fhwang.net writes:

For example, if the outer class is:

class OuterClass < AbstractOuterClass
…
end

and in InnerClass.rb I have:

class OuterClass
class InnerClass
…
end
end

I get the following error:

warning: already initialized constant OuterClass

Which version of Ruby are you using? You will get no error on 1.6.7
or 1.7.2

matz.

5

Hi,

···

In message “Re: problem with inner classes” on 02/06/20, “k” kturing@yahoo.com writes:

This (of course) works:
class Abstract
end
class Outer
end
class Outer < Abstract
end

I think he wants this to work too:
class Abstract
end
class Outer < Abstract
end
class Outer
end

That working would suprise me, personally.

I think you meant the former does not work, the latter does.
When re-defining a class, a class statement should be either

  • no superclass specified
  • same superclass specified

It’s the reason that the former did not work.

						matz.