Re: a newbie question about main, Object...

Sam Sungshik Kong wrote:
> 1. In irb, if I type self, it returns main which is type of Object.
> 
>>self
> 
> =>main
> 
>>self.class
> 
> =>Object
> 
>>main
> 
> NameError: undefined local variable or method `main' for main:Object
>         from (irb):28
>         from :0
> 
> I understand that main is an instance of type Object.
> Why can't I access main directly like main.something?
> What *actually* is main?
> A global instance?

That's a good question.

You could do

$main = self

at the top of your code if you wanted to treat the object as a global
instance. But most of the time, I just forget that this object exists.

IMHO, this object exists primarily so that you can write and call
methods in the top-level scope and then easily migrate them inside a
class or module. A trivial example:

---
def add(x,y)
   x+y
end

p add(1,3)
---

---
module Operations
   def add(x,y)
     x+y
   end
end

include Operations

p Operations.add(1,3)
---