Using pl.Map with keys equal to method names

[ghost]

This might not be a real bug report. It could easily be my fault in that I'm using pl.Map in the wrong way.

Consider the following code:

local Map=require"pl.Map"
local m=Map()
m:set("get", 5)
m:get("get")

This fails with the error

lua: /home/local/test/test.lua:48: attempt to call a number value (method 'get')

That's not surprising: the key "get" shadows the method. But does this mean that the map is now unusable (at least the "get" method) until "get" is deleted?

[stevedonovan]

Yes, it's a known problem, because the lookup cannot distinguish between the table and the metatable __index. Now we could make this bullet proof at the cost of performance - make __index a function and put some logic in it. For pl.Set I resolved the issue by having no methods.

[stevedonovan]

I'll leave this open, but I'm concerned about the performance implications.

[joshuahhh]

Would it work for the Map table to store its key-value pairs in a separate table, like self.contents? That way the contents would never conflict with the methods.