Not to spam, but I a colleague did a write up on coercion in Ruby, and I thought it was interesting and fresh, so I thought I''d share with the community: http://mutuallyhuman.com/blog/2011/01/25/class-coercion-in-ruby -- Zach Dennis http://www.continuousthinking.com (personal) http://www.mutuallyhuman.com (hire me) http://ideafoundry.info/behavior-driven-development (first rate BDD training) @zachdennis (twitter)