From: Eero Saynatkari <ruby-ml@...>
Date: 2005-12-30T08:42:51+09:00
Subject: Re: What is the difference between :foo and "foo" ?

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On 2005.12.30 08:35, Steve Litt <slitt@earthlink.net> wrote:
> On Thursday 29 December 2005 01:03 pm, James Edward Gray II wrote:
> [clip]
> > > class variable @wilbur,
> >
> > That's an instance variable, not a class variable.
> 
> I knew that :-) Skipping from Perl to C to C++ to Python to Ruby, I sometimes 
> forget the terminology.
> >
> > As Austin taught us yesterday, it doesn't make the variable either,
> > just some methods.
> 
> My understanding of Ruby is the getters and setters it makes make the 
> variable, because the setter sets @wilber to its argument.

The instance variable is not created by the attr_* statement,
however. Only if you call  obj.attribute = something will it
be created (unless you create it in #initialize or something).

irb(main):001:0> class Foo
irb(main):002:1>   attr_accessor 'bar'
irb(main):003:1> end
=> nil
irb(main):004:0> f = Foo.new
=> #<Foo:0xb7de9be8>
irb(main):005:0> f.inspect
=> "#<Foo:0xb7de9be8>"
irb(main):006:0> f.bar = 5
=> 5
irb(main):007:0> f.inspect
=> "#<Foo:0xb7de9be8 @bar=5>"                # <-- This here
irb(main):008:0> 

> SteveT


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