From: Mads Kristensen <madsk@...>
Date: 2005-11-06T23:17:10+09:00
Subject: Access control and class methods

Hi.

I was just wondering: does access control not apply to class methods? 
When I use the public, private and protected keywords on my instance 
methods everything works fine, but when I try to do the same on class 
methods they all end up being public anyway.

A small example:

--- Snip ---
#!/usr/bin/ruby

class Foo
   public
   def Foo._public (x)
     puts "Hello in a public way #{x}"
   end
   protected
   def Foo._protected (x)
     puts "Hello in a protected way #{x}"
   end
   private
   def Foo._private (x)
     puts "Hello in a private way #{x}"
   end
end

Foo::_public(1)
Foo::_protected(2)
Foo::_private(3)
--- Snip ---

Running this small program will call all three methods successfully 
meaning that the private and protected class methods are called from a 
place where _only_ public methods should be available.

So, are there no access control mechanisms for class methods? Or am i 
missing domething here?

Best regards,
Mads D. Kristensen

BTW: Thanks to the creators of Ruby for a great little language. Good 
work you guys!