From: gabriele renzi <surrender_it@...>
Date: 2005-10-27T06:52:03+09:00
Subject: Re: nested def's

Daniel Sch�le ha scritto:
> Hello *,
<snip>
> 
> and it seems to be ok, no warning no error at least
> I remember reading (but dont ask me the article)
> that nested functions are not allowed in ruby
> is this something that has been changed or was this always
> possible?
> 
> thx, Daniel

it has been possible for long time (I can't say "always" :)

But they don't work as you may think, since nested method definition 
still define the method for the same "self", and are not pure functions 
that have local scope.
See example for better explanation:
irb(main):001:0> def a
irb(main):002:1>  def b
irb(main):003:2>   def c
irb(main):004:3>    p 'in c'
irb(main):005:3>   end
irb(main):006:2>   p 'in b'
irb(main):007:2>  end
irb(main):008:1>  p 'in a'
irb(main):009:1> end
=> nil
irb(main):010:0> b
NameError: undefined local variable or method `b' for main:Object
         from (irb):10
irb(main):011:0> a
"in a"
=> nil
irb(main):012:0> b
"in b"
=> nil