From: Leonid Razoumov <see_signature@127.0.0.1>
Date: 2001-05-08T07:41:25+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:14825] [Q] Why module methods are NOT included by 'include' statement?

Ruby has a powerful 'include some_module' statement which imports into the
current namespace constants, class variables and instance methods defined in
some_module. However, module methods are NOT imported.  Why so?

#EXAMPLE
module Mod
  MY_C = 12345.54321 # module constant

  def inst_func() # instance function
    puts "I am an instance function in module Mod"
  end

  def Mod.mod_func() # module function
    puts "I am a module function in module Mod"
  end
end

class Cls
  include Mod
end


Cls::MY_C  # -> 12345.54321
Cls.new.inst_func # -> "I am an instance function in module Mod"
Cls.mod_func # -> NameError: undefined method `mod_func' for Cls:Class


By the way, when a class gets inherited, its class methods become class methods
of the derived class. Why the module methods are treated differently?

Thanks, 
Leo [ slonika AT yahoo DOT com ]