The Ruby Object Model and Metaprogramming

Metaprogramming lets you program more expressively. This makes your code easier to write and easier to maintain and extend. Learn both the hows and whys of metaprogramming Ruby from Dave Thomas, one of the most experienced Ruby programmers in the western world. Initially, metaprogramming Ruby can seem really difficult. There are all these unfamiliar terms: singletons, self, metaclasses, and so on. And things never seem to work quite right the first time—Hmm... maybe it'll work if I change class_eval to instance_eval... Well, the good news is that it really isn't that complex. You just have to understand the underlying model, and everything falls into place. Dave Thomas has been digging into that model for the last ten years, and has a fresh (and simple) way of looking at it. Now you'll be able to see why metaprogramming works, and how to do it for yourself. It doesn't matter if you've been programming Ruby for a month or for five years. We bet that you'll learn plenty new in each of these episodes, as Dave digs into both the how and the why of the Ruby object model and metaprogramming.