Understanding namespaces in Ruby

Question

In the code below:

::Trace.tracer = ::Trace::ZipkinTracer.new()

what is the relation between Trace and ZipkinTracer

Answer 1

This code does the following thing. First, it instantiates class ZipkinTracer:

new_instance = Trace::ZipkinTracer.new()

Then, it calls #tracer= method of the Trace module:

Trace.tracer=( new_instance )

Ruby syntax allows this to be rewritten as

Trace.tracer = new_instance

In this case, no assignment is happening, but a method ending in = is called. Methods ending in = are allowed in Ruby, used generally for attribute assignment, and they are special in that they always return the assigned value (that is, their argument), regardless of what other return value you might be trying to prescribe:

class Foo
  def bar=( value )
    puts "Method #bar= called!"
    @bar = value
    puts "Trying to return Quux!"
    return "Quux!"
  end

  def bar; @bar end
end

foo = Foo.new
foo.bar #=> nil
foo.bar = "Baz!"
#=> Method #bar= called!
#=> Trying to return Quux!
#=> "Baz!" -- attempt to explicitly return "Quux!" failed
foo.bar #=> "Baz!"