From: Eli Bendersky <eliben@...>
Date: 2006-05-19T14:33:05+09:00
Subject: Re: send vs. dot notation

Giles Bowkett wrote:
> What's a good reason to use send() instead of a dot to send a message?
> 
> Is it for situations where you know you're going to want to send an
> object a message, but you don't know what that message is until
> runtime?

Yes, this is a good example. Since Ruby has no real concept of "compile 
time", we can refer to it as "coding time". So:

obj.do_stuff(args)

Is only possible when you know at "coding time" that 'do_stuff' is the 
method you want to call on obj. If you don't know it, and it will become 
known only during "run time", you can do:

obj.send(method_name, args)

Where 'method_name' stores the name of the method

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