Defining custom operators in ruby

Question

I would like to be able to define custom operators. Is that possible? For example, to make a***b mean something.

Is it also possible to monkey patch existing operators? To, for example, make a**b always return a float?

Answer 1

Yes, you can. For example:

class Fixnum
  def **(x)
    self.*(x)*1.0
  end
end

5**4 #==> 20.0