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## Revised from RBP Tip #8 # Thanks Fabian Streitel for pointing out that the previous # example does not allow setting name to nil or false # class Person def name(*args) return @name if args.empty? @name = args.first end alias_method :name=, :name end # Works normally from the external interface person = Person.new person.name = "Gregory Brown" puts person.name # Looks nice from the inside as well: Person.new.instance_eval do name "Gregory Brown" puts name end # Without the optional argument to name(), we'd be stuck with: Person.new.instance_eval do self.name = "Gregory Brown" puts name end # Without the alias for name=, we'd be stuck with: person = Person.new person.name "Gregory Brown" puts person.name # You want to make sure to alias name= rather than just do attr_writer name, so as to not duplicate setter logic. # (unless you intentionally want to make them different)

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