Parent class's instance variable in Ruby - ruby

Question

So, for whatever reason there is no peek method in the ruby core Queue class. I am trying to create a child class that implements the peek method. However, I don't understand why I am getting an error. Is it not possible to use instance variables in this way? Looking at the source code for Queue, there are instance variables in the constructor of the parent class. Is there a way to reference these in the subclass?
class PeekQueue < Queue
def peek
#mutex.synchronize{
while true
if #que.empty?
raise ThreadError, "queue empty" if non_block
#waiting.push Thread.current
#mutex.sleep
else
return #que[0]
end
end
}
end
end
a = PeekQueue.new
a.push(1)
a.peek
NoMethodError: undefined method 'synchronize' for nil:NilClass
Edit: The Queue class is created at compile time, which is why I couldn't find the source on the ruby source code on github. This is what the parent class looks like:
https://gist.github.com/anonymous/574e20fea3a28663bfe2

Answer 1

I do not see that error:
irb(main):025:0> qq = PeekQueue.new
=> #<PeekQueue:0x000006002bf498 #que=[], #num_waiting=0, #mutex=#<Mutex:0x000006002bf420>, #cond=#<ConditionVariable:0x000006002bf3f8 #waiters={}, #waiters_mutex=#<Mutex:0x000006002bf3a8>>>
irb(main):026:0> qq.peek
NameError: undefined local variable or method `non_block' for #<PeekQueue:0x000006002bf498>
from (irb):15:in `block in peek'
from (irb):12:in `synchronize'
from (irb):12:in `peek'
from (irb):26
from /usr/bin/irb:12:in `<main>'
irb(main):027:0> qq.push 1
=> #<ConditionVariable:0x000006002bf3f8 #waiters={}, #waiters_mutex=#<Mutex:0x000006002bf3a8>>
irb(main):028:0> qq.peek
=> 1
Method #non_block seems to be an issue. But access to #mutex works with your code.