From: James Britt <james_b@...>
Date: 2006-04-03T07:12:32+09:00
Subject: Re: self.some_attribute vs @some_attribute

Fred wrote:

> is there any practical reason to use sometimes self.password and 
> sometimes @password? I thought they were synonyms...
> 
@password refers to an instance variable.

self.password refers to a method named 'password', which may or may not 
have anything to do with any instance variables.

People will often use methods to get and set instance variable values to 
allow for code that checks values, handles business logic, and so on.

But methods and instance variables are not coupled, and one shouldn't 
assume that any given method is interacting with an instance variable of 
the same name.


-- 
James Britt

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