In your first paragraph you mention that Javascript was the only language that you know of that uses prototypes. Well, I just wanted to point out that, while Javascript makes good use of the prototype mechanism, it is by far not the only, nor the first, language to do so. The first language to introduce this concept was the Self language. Other languages today still use prototype method to perform OO. The two languages, other than Javascript, that I am most acquainted with are Io and Lua. Take a look at the Wikipedia article on Prototype-based Programming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototype-based_programming) and you’ll no doubt find some other really interesting languages that do OO but don’t use the traditional class-based methodology.

Cheers and keep up the good work,

Christopher

s = ” string ”

class String
def trim2 #trim already exists
self.gsub(/^\s*|\s*$/, ”)
end
end

s.trim2 # => “string”

” TEST ” becomes “TEST”.

How can you extend objects this way in ruby? (by the way, have a look at my friend site : http://www.rubyfleebie.com/)

Does the trim function you posted clear all whitespace – inc spaces between words? This would emulate trim behaviour?

String.prototype.trim = function() {
return this.replace(/^\s*|\s*$/g, “”);
}

I think Ruby emulates this behaviour as well, you can open any class (inc language base classes) and add methods.