From: David Vallner <david@...>
Date: 2006-02-16T23:02:58+09:00
Subject: Re: Private methods - only available to oneself?

Also, a minor mental exercise just came to mind. Presuming Ruby private would 
work like in C++, consider this code snippet:

	class A
		def foo
			puts "foo"
		end
		private :foo
	end

	a = A.new
	b = A.new

	def b.bar
		foo
	end

Should this be valid? Is b an instance of the same class as a? If not, should 
the call to #foo still be valid or not? (E.g. should we consider singleton 
classes in the method access rules?)

On a slightly related note, in case people watching the thread aren't confused 
enough as it is: Ruby's private methods are actually accessible from 
subclasses.

In any case, I think determining anything based on the notion of "the same 
class" in Ruby would only lead to more ambiguity in the language rather than 
make it easier to comprehend. It would also seem very non-rubyish to me, 
since as opposed to the C++ language family, a class is not the only, or 
sometimes even not even an important element of defining an object's 
behaviour.

David Vallner