From: "M. Maniak" <skull2crush@...>
Date: 2005-05-16T09:05:30+09:00
Subject: Visibility and the "self" receiver

Hello,

I'm new to Ruby (coming from Java) and puzzled
by the behaviour of "self" when defining a private method:

-->Snip
class TestClass

         def initialize(args)
                 @myString = args
                 self.print()
         end

         private
         def print()
                 puts @myString
         end
end
-->Snip

This produces a NameError when instantiated/executed.
Without reference to itself (without "self") everything works...

I guess print() is then treated as a function and not as
a method (whatever that means in OOP -> maybe no return value).

I know that in Java "this" is a somehow comparable reference
with "self" in Ruby and denotes the actual object. I use it
quite often...

Has anyone an explanation about this specific behaviour (I know
it's not a bug)? Maybe I don't get the principle of "private"
or Visibility in general in Ruby.

Thank you very much for a hint.

Greets,
M. Maniak