Question

Do you use the alias method in order to add more ways to call methods (like length and size) or is there another use for it?

Answer 1

The alias_method call is also useful for re-implementing something but preserving the original version. There’s also alias_method_chain from Rails which makes that kind of thing even easier.

alias_method also comes in handy when you have a number of behaviors that are initially identical but might diverge in the future, where you can at least rough them in to start.

def handle_default_situation
  nil
end

%w[ poll push foo ].each do |type|
  alias_method :"handle_#{type}_situation", :handle_default_situation
end