From: gwtmp01@...
Date: 2005-12-07T14:49:21+09:00
Subject: Re: Mixins and variables


On Dec 7, 2005, at 12:29 AM, Johannes Friestad wrote:
> OK, thanks. Can I force "x=(whatever)" to mean a method call instead
> of an assignment?
> I thought the parantheses were supposed to do that?

It is a parsing problem.   Because ruby supports zero argument methods
the parser when it sees:

	x = 4

can't decide from the syntax alone if this is a local variable  
assignment
or if this is a method call to the x= method for the object (with 0  
arguments).
This decision needs to be made when the method is *parsed* long before
the method has actually been executed.

So the goal is to convince the parser of what you want.  If you want  
this
to be a method call then you have the following options:

	self.x = 4	# explicit method call
	x() = 4		# also explicit but not 'rubyish'

Putting arguments around right-hand-side expression doesn't help the  
parser:

	x = (4)		# no help here

Neither does getting rid of spaces

	x=(4)		# still no help

The parser also learns as it goes along to help disambiguate other
uses of the variable.  See http://dev.rubycentral.com/faq/rubyfaq-4.html
for more details (section 4.3)