Heart of the ruby on rails magic in creating a very expressive and eloquent web development framework is the use of ruby’s method_missing.

Following is an example of method_missing in action :

class Roman
  def romanToInt(str)
    # ...
  end
  def <span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>method_missing</strong></span>(methId)
    str = methId.id2name
    romanToInt(str)
  end
end

Results:

<strong>r = Roman.new
r.iv
»
4
r.xxiii
»
23
r.mm</strong>

Following is a C# 4.0 equivalent using the dynamic keyword.

<span class="kwrd">using</span> System;
<span class="kwrd">using</span> System.Dynamic;
<span class="kwrd">namespace</span> Vitraag.MetaProgramming
{
    <span class="kwrd">class</span> Program
    {
        <span class="kwrd">static</span> <span class="kwrd">void</span> Main(<span class="kwrd">string</span>[] args)
        {
            <span style="color:#ff0000;">dynamic</span> Caesar = <span class="kwrd">new</span> Roman();
            Console.WriteLine(Caesar.IV);
            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }

    <span class="kwrd">class</span> Roman: <strong><span style="color:#ff0000;">DynamicObject</span></strong>
    {
        <span class="kwrd">int</span> StringToRoman(<span class="kwrd">string</span> s)
        {
            <span class="rem">// Simple logic needs a better function</span>
            <span class="kwrd">switch</span> (s)
            {
                <span class="kwrd">case</span> <span class="str">"I"</span> : <span class="kwrd">return</span> 1;
                <span class="kwrd">case</span> <span class="str">"IV"</span>: <span class="kwrd">return</span> 4;
                <span class="rem">// Should add more cases</span>
                <span class="kwrd">default</span>: <span class="kwrd">return</span> 0;
            }
        }

        <span class="kwrd">public</span> <span class="kwrd">override</span> <span class="kwrd">bool</span> <strong><span style="color:#ff0000;">TryGetMember</span></strong>(GetMemberBinder binder,
             <span class="kwrd">out</span> <span class="kwrd">object</span> result)
        {
            result = StringToRoman(binder.Name);
            <span class="rem">// This logic could be improved</span>
            <span class="kwrd">if</span> ((<span class="kwrd">int</span>)result != 0)
            {
                <span class="kwrd">return</span> <span class="kwrd">true</span>;
            }
            <span class="kwrd">return</span> <span class="kwrd">false</span>;
        }
    }
}

Running the above code gives us the result as: 4

I’ll be adding more thoughts in coming weeks around meta-programming and having an extensible type and formatting system. Please feel free to share your best reads or comments on the topic below!