Should super's position be kept irrelevant?

ruby-talk
1

this is really just a question of taste i think, but i’m wondering if you
think super’s position should be kept irrelevant? in the example below the
puts @avar will return nil. super has to be placed below @avar = 1 for it to
return 1.

class Sup
	def initialize
		puts @avar
	end
end

class Chi < Sup
	def initialize
		super     # will puts nil
		@avar = 1
		# super  # would puts 1
	end
end

the other option to make it irrelevent is:

class Sup
	def initialize
	end
	def go
		puts @avar
	end
end

class Chi < Sup
	def initialize
		super
		@avar = 1
		go
	end
end

of course, now go’s position is important, but not super’s. which is
preferrable?

-transami

2

to me, that’s the least suprising way to work. when you call super
before setting the instance variable, the puts of the variable springs
it into existence with nil as a value (Perl calls it autovivification i
think). the output comes before the setting of the variable, and nothing
happens after setting it.

in the second setup, super.initialize doesn’t DO anything, but #go does,
and the instance variable is set BEFORE #go is run. super’s position in
the second example isn’t important because super.initialize is not doing
anything :wink:

-Justin

···

On Sunday, January 5, 2003, at 06:07 , Tom Sawyer wrote:

this is really just a question of taste i think, but i’m wondering if
you
think super’s position should be kept irrelevant? in the example below
the
puts @avar will return nil. super has to be placed below @avar = 1 for
it to
return 1.

class Sup
def initialize
puts @avar
end
end

class Chi < Sup
def initialize
super # will puts nil
@avar = 1
# super # would puts 1
end
end

the other option to make it irrelevent is:

class Sup
def initialize
end
def go
puts @avar
end
end

class Chi < Sup
def initialize
super
@avar = 1
go
end
end

of course, now go’s position is important, but not super’s. which is
preferrable?

3

It’s not a question of relevance - it’s just that super returns a value,
and if it’s the last statement in your method, that value will be the
method’s return value. I don’t see any real way around that.

martin

···

Tom Sawyer transami@transami.net wrote:

this is really just a question of taste i think, but i’m wondering if you
think super’s position should be kept irrelevant? in the example below the
puts @avar will return nil. super has to be placed below @avar = 1 for it to
return 1.

4

Misread your post - please ignore :slight_smile:

martin

···

Martin DeMello martindemello@yahoo.com wrote: