From: Hal Fulton <hal9000@...>
Date: 2004-06-22T04:54:13+09:00
Subject: Re: About top-level method

Sam Sungshik Kong wrote:
> If I understand correctly, one can't call a private method via object name
> (receiver).
> Private methods can be called only with self.
> 
> So the following code will cause an error (at the top level).
> 
> def foo #->this is a private instance method of Object
>   ...
> end
> 
> obj = Object.new
> 
> obj.foo #->Error, but in irb, it's ok.
> 
> Best explanation so far is that irb makes an exception for debugging
> purpose.

No, I don't think that's quite right. My guess would be that when
you're in an irb session, you're not really at the top level.

Imagine something like:

   obj.instance_eval do
     # User commands...
   end

In other words, I think it's a side effect of the way irb works --
neither a bug nor a feature as such, and not a special exception
deliberately built in.

That's just my impression. I haven't proved it.


Hal