Rails - Jul 2005 - Arrays not all created equal?

In order to make options handling a bit easier I''ve mixed this method 
into class Hash

  def value_to_a(key, default = [])
    if value = self[key]
      puts "#{value.inspect}:#{value.class}, #{value.kind_of?(Array)}"
      value.kind_of?(Array) ? value : [ value ]
    else
      default
    end
  end

When I run my unit tests separately they work without a hitch. But when 
I run all my tests using rake, the result boggles my mind. This test 
fails

  def test_value_to_a_array
    options = { ''mykey'' => [ ''thevalue'',
''anothervalue'' ] }
    assert_equal(
      [''thevalue'', ''anothervalue''],
      options.value_to_a(''mykey''))
  end

Even though the debug output indicates that value.class is Array, 
value.kind_of?(Array) returns false. Specifically, this happens, when I 
ran this particular test in conjunction with another test case where I 
check some extensions of the Array class. Apparently, Ruby is doing 
something to the class hierarchy that''s beyond me.


Michael

-- 
Michael Schuerig                              Life is just as deadly
mailto:michael-q5aiKMLteq4b1SvskN2V4Q@public.gmane.org                          
As it looks
http://www.schuerig.de/michael/          --Richard Thompson, Sibella