constant_name_resolution.md

I do not like the way Ruby does its constant name resolution.

Suppose somewhere in your codebase you define a module Parent:

module Parent
  FOO = "foo"
end

And some other place, you add a method onto a module inside Parent called Child:

module Parent
  module Child
    def self.nested_wut
      puts self.object_id
      FOO
    end
  end
end

And somewhere else you add yet another method onto Parent's Child, this time using a different syntax:

module Parent::Child
  def self.fully_qualified_wut
    puts self.object_id
    FOO
  end
end

To my thinking, these two _wut methods should work exactly the same way. But they don't:

> Parent::Child.nested_wut
4836
 => "foo" 

> Parent::Child.fully_qualified_wut
4836
NameError: Missing or uninitialized constant: Parent::Child::Foo
from ...

(printing the object_id in there to demonstrate that this is only a lexical difference)

Am I crazy for thinking that it's much less obvious to have constant name resolution be lexically scoped?

My strongest real-world reason for loathing this is that with lexical scoping, there are practical reasons that I should avoid using

module A::B::C::D
  # ...
end

And should instead use

module AlphaArgyle
  module BetaMaximum
    module GammaRaysOnManInTheMoonMarigolds
      module DotingFather
        # ...
      end
    end
  end
end

Which is an unforgiveable waste of space, both vertical and horizontal. Starting almost every line with eight spaces just so that I can avoid having to use fully qualified names any time I might want to access a constant further up the module hierarchy (e.g. AlphaArgyle::BetaMaximum::GammaRaysOnManInTheMoonMarigolds::POTENCY) is silly. I want my code as close to the left margin as possible—this increases legibility as it makes it much easier to judge by eye what a particular end lines up with.

Nonsense.