From: Sam Sungshik Kong <ssk@...>
Date: 2004-06-22T02:23:13+09:00
Subject: Re: About top-level method

Hi, Sean!

Thank you for the reply.
You helped me understand half of the issue.
As Object is a superclass of all classes (except for Object),
if I add a method to Object, the metaclass of Object will have it too.
That enlightened me a lot.

However, there's one more thing to solve.
When I define a method at top-level,
it's Object's private instance method.
So it can't be used like receiver.method.
obj.my_f #-> Error because my_f is private.
Object.my_f #->Error because my_f is private.

The question is why irb ignores the error?
Is it intentional or a bug?

I also appreciate all other replies.

kong

"Sean O'Dell" <sean@celsoft.com> wrote in message
news:200406210824.11465.sean@celsoft.com...
> On Sunday 20 June 2004 22:33, Sam Sungshik Kong wrote:
> > Hello!
> >
> > I'm reading a book named "Teach yourself Ruby".
> > In chapter 2, it says that top-level methods are Object's private
instance
> > methods.
> > But my test shows different results.
> >
> > In irb, I tested it like the following.
> >
> > def my_f
> >   p "my_f"
> > end
> >
> > Object.my_f #=> print "my_f"
> > obj = Object.new
> > obj.my_f #=> print "my_f"
> >
> > Then, my_f is an instance method, and a class method as well?
> >
> > Can anyone help me understand it?
>
> The Object class is the base of every other class, and is itself an
instance
> of class Class.
>
> Sean O'Dell
>
>
>