From: Joachim Wuttke <Joachim_Wuttke@...>
Date: 2004-10-06T23:49:33+09:00
Subject: Re: quality of error messages

Encouraged by your quick response, I try to explain better
what I meant in example 2:

class Foo
    attr_reader ... # here I forgot :pos
    def initialize
        ...
        @pos = ...
    end
end
...
blabla = someClass.someMethod.link_to_another_class.methods_pos.oof

=> system complains "no such method"

Formally, the system is right: I forgot to declare the read
access method for the variable pos.

But:
(1) the system should tell me which method in the above
chain causes the problem
(2) as a naive programmer, with a background in other languages,
I do not think of pos as method. I think of it as variable.
Once the system does not find a method, it could check whether
there is a local variable of same name, and then print out
an error message like
   "no method 'pos', no read access to local variable 'pos'".

Joachim