From: Pete Elmore <pete@...>
Date: 2005-07-15T07:22:10+09:00
Subject: Re: Difference between Class.new and class

Levin Alexander wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> why do class definitions with the keyword "class" return nil and not 
> the  class itself?
> 
>   >> class Foo
>   >>   def foo
>   >>     puts "in Foo"
>   >>   end
>   >> end
>   => nil
irb(main):001:0> class X
irb(main):002:1>   def y
irb(main):003:2>     puts "z"
irb(main):004:2>   end
irb(main):005:1>   self
irb(main):006:1> end
=> X
The class definition returns the result of the last statement, so you 
can put 'self' just before the end of the definition to get it to return 
the class.  It's returning nil because def returns nil.