From: itsme213 <itsme213@...>
Date: 2006-01-03T04:02:56+09:00
Subject: Re: A question about Ruby main object

See

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.ruby/browse_thread/thread/7bb7b451a8f3cca7/98c4c62127b9d945?q=itsme213+main+singleton+Object&rnum=1#98c4c62127b9d945

"Antti Karanta" <Antti.Karanta@removethis.iki.fi.nospam> wrote in message 
news:dpbr1c$p2b$1@phys-news4.kolumbus.fi...
>
>
>                        Hi!
>
>  I have been doing different things w/ Ruby for a couple of years now and
> the only bad thing I can say about it is that it makes programming in 
> other
> languages feel awfully burdensome. = )
>
>  Anyhow, I really like how everything makes sense. There is one thing that
> I have not been able to fit in entirely. A Ruby program starts in the
> context of the "main" object,
>
> antti@hyperion:~> ruby -e "puts self"
> main
> antti@hyperion:~> ruby -e "puts self.class"
> Object
>
>  However, the methods I declare in the context of this "main" object are
> somehow available as private methods of class Object (and naturally usable
> from subclasses):
>
> def foo
>  puts "hello"
> end
> class Bar
>  def amethod
>    foo
>  end
> end
> b = Bar.new
> b.amethod
>
>  outputs:
> hello
>
>  Is there some logical explanation for this? I understand that this is 
> very
> convenient as these methods appear as "stand-alone functions", but taking
> it just as "it just is so" breaks the otherwise consistent rules, as
> normally you have to define a method in the context of a class for it to 
> be
> a method of that class. However, the "main" object is not class Object, 
> nor
> is it a class at all:
>
> antti@hyperion:~> ruby -e "puts self.kind_of?(Class)"
> false
> antti@hyperion:~> ruby -e "puts self.kind_of?(Module)"
> false
>
>  So what is the logic behind the "main" object? Is there a logical reason
> for the methods defined in its context to appear as private methods of
> class Object?
>
>
>
>        -Antti-
>
>
>