From: ts <decoux@...>
Date: 2001-07-09T01:19:27+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:17503] Re: Aliases for class methods

>>>>> "H" == HarryO  <harryo@zipworld.com.au> writes:

H> Can you explain what the difference is between

H>    alias :uu :tt

H> and simply

H>    alias uu tt

H> to me? Are they equivalent or is there some difference I'm missing?

 Well in this case they are equivalent. alias is a keyword which accept the
name of the method or a Symbol.

 But if you use alias_method (which do the same thing that alias, but is a
private method and not a keyword) this can make a difference.

 For example, if you write

   alias_method uu, tt

 ruby will try to call the methods #uu and #tt and then call #alias_method
 with the result of these 2 calls. This is why, to have something
 equivalent to the previous example, you must write

   class A
      def tt
      end
      alias_method :uu, :tt
  end


Guy Decoux