From: Robert Klemme <bob.news@...>
Date: 2006-02-02T06:41:04+09:00
Subject: Re: methods defined in main

Vivek wrote:
> Hello,
>   I understand that everything in ruby is an object so a method
> defined in a file like this in a file
>
>
> def meth1
>  puts self
> end
>
> actually prints main.
> but when I run it in the debugger mode and do main.methods. I get
> 'main' undefined variable..

The fact that self when printed shows "main" does not mean that there is a
variable with that name.  You can make anything print main:

15:57:02 [~]: ruby -e 'o=Object.new; def o.to_s() "main" end; puts o'
main

>but If i do self.methods I can see the
> methods but cant see the meth1 method.I thought ruby opens the 'main'
> object and adds methods to that instance.
> So whats happening here?

You don't get to see private methods - and methods defined on top level
are implicitely private:

15:56:46 [~]: ruby -e 'def foo() puts "x" end; self.foo()'
-e:1: private method `foo' called for main:Object (NoMethodError)

15:56:58 [~]: ruby -e 'def foo() puts "x" end; foo()'
x

15:54:57 [~]: ruby -e 'def foo() end; p self.private_methods.grep(/foo/)'
["foo"]
15:57:44 [~]: ruby -e 'def foo() end; p private_methods.grep(/foo/)'
["foo"]


KInd regards

    robert