From: "Mark J.Reed" <mreed@...>
Date: 2005-12-16T07:37:40+09:00
Subject: Re: Assigning a block to a variable in Ruby

Martin DeMello <martindemello@yahoo.com> writes:
>ajmayo@my-deja.com wrote:
>> evaluate the function with parameter 1, then attempt to print the
>> function itself (which Javascript will do, printing the text of the
>> block)

>Ruby does not do this.

More specifically: in Ruby, unlike Python and JavaScript, methods are *not*
variables with closure values.  You can persuade Ruby to turn a method into a
closure value, but that's not how they live, and methods do not occupy variable
namespace.  So defining a method 'foo' does not have any affect on the variable
'foo', or vice versa:

irb(main):001:0> def foo; 1 end # define a method
=> nil
irb(main):002:0> foo            # calls the method
=> 1
irb(main):003:0> foo=2          # create a variable
=> 2    
irb(main):004:0> foo            # now this finds the variable
=> 2
irb(main):005:0> foo()          # but the method is still there, too
=> 1