When to use mixins in Ruby

Posted by Gilles on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by Gilles
Published on 2012-06-17T15:15:39Z Indexed on 2012/06/17 15:22 UTC
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mixins

I am wondering when to use mixins? I have read about them. Many authors compare them to interfaces, abstract classes, etc.

Mixins are modules that are mixed-in and modules are a way to group similar methods, constants and classes together.

I have seen examples where a module for math functions is created. It makes sense to group and reuse such functions but should I only mix these in a class if I am faced with an inheritance situation? Should I mix these in anytime I want to use them in a class?

Should they be used exactly like interfaces in other languages or are there other subtleties?

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