From: Cameron McBride <cameron.mcbride@...>
Date: 2006-02-17T02:07:41+09:00
Subject: Re: Newbie: how to dynamically add methods?

On 2/16/06, dblack@wobblini.net <dblack@wobblini.net> wrote:
> Except for some minor differences that usually don't matter, these two
> things are equivalent:
>
>    def a.meth
>    end
>
> and
>
>    class << a
>      def meth
>      end
>    end
>
> In both cases, you're defining a method that only the object a can
> call.

It also might be worth pointing out that if 'a' is a class, you'll be
adding a class method.

so the notation

class << self
 ...

is often used within a class to defind a class method.  This type of
usage is described on page 34 in PickAxe 2 (the sidebar thing).

Cameron