From: Peter Vanbroekhoven <calamitas@...>
Date: 2005-08-29T23:06:07+09:00
Subject: Re: Method behaves differently when called using #send

On Mon, 29 Aug 2005, David A. Black wrote:

> But look at the error message:
>
>  irb(main):003:0> 1.puts
>  NoMethodError: private method `puts' called for 1:Fixnum
>
> It's contradictory: "no method", but "private method called".  "No
> method" really doesn't describe the situation.  Perhaps no *response*,
> but not no method.

I agree that the error message is contradictory. At least that can be 
remedied by simply changing the error message.

I have to admit though that personally I'd like to see private methods (as 
they are now) go and have them replaced by a kind of 'local methods' 
(which could still be called using send or send! or whatever). Local 
methods would go in a separate namespace, so for anyone outside that 
namespace it would be as if the method is not there. It trades 
accessibility for visibility. Accessibility in Ruby sometimes seems a bit 
useless because it's way too easy to circumvent. Visibility would not even 
try to restrict access, you just need the right pair of glasses to see the 
'private/local methods'. But that's a completely different discussion ;-)

Peter