From: James Edward Gray II <james@...>
Date: 2006-06-01T03:51:00+09:00
Subject: Re: OO / Private verse Protected

On May 31, 2006, at 1:35 PM, Paul D. Kraus wrote:

> Can someone give me an example of when a private method would be more
> appropaiate then a protected one?
>
> I understand the definition of the two but I don't quit understand  
> the uses.
>
> A protected method is only accessible from other objects derived  
> from the
> same class.
> A private method is basically the same thing but can only be called  
> by the
> current object.
>
> *shrug* how are those two things different.
> When would you ever have an instance that is going to call a method  
> from
> another instance?

Maybe in a situation like:

 >> class MyClass
 >>   def initialize
 >>     @secret_data = 5
 >>   end
 >>   def ==( other )
 >>     secret_data == other.secret_data
 >>   end
 >>   protected
 >>   attr_reader :secret_data
 >> end
=> nil

James Edward Gray II