From: Gavin Sinclair <gsinclair@...>
Date: 2004-12-03T14:00:44+09:00
Subject: Re: nested defs, what if...

On Friday, December 3, 2004, 1:47:32 PM, nobu wrote:

> Hi,

> At Fri, 3 Dec 2004 08:20:34 +0900,
> trans.  (T. Onoma) wrote in [ruby-talk:122265]:
>> Well, it's an idea, but I don't think a very good one. In general I don't
>> think this is useful, and would rather obfuscate code if actually used. I
>> think what would be more useful is if such methods were local methods, like
>> local variables:

> I also have thought the idea, though haven't implemented it.
> I'm still worndering whether this should be valid or error.

>   class A
>     def a(y)
>       def b(x)
>         x + y    # `y' in a or `undefined local variable'?
>       end
>       10.times{ |i| print b(i) }
>     end
>   end

Is there any difference between an "inner method" (with 'y' in a) and
a lambda?

I've happily used lambdas to define private functionality before, but
I'm concerned about efficiency:

  class A
    def a(y)
      b = lambda { |x| x + y }
      10.times { |i| print b(i) }
    end
  end

Does the lambda attached to b get regenerated with each call to a?

Gavin