From: ChrisH <chris.hulan@...>
Date: 2006-07-06T23:52:43+09:00
Subject: Re: attribute reader

Just Another Victim of the Ambient Morality wrote:
> "Robert Klemme" <shortcutter@googlemail.com> wrote in message
> news:4h1o45F1p7ma2U1@individual.net...
> >
> > class Times
> >   attr_accessor :time
> >
> >   def time_seconds
> >     self.time.sec
> >   end
> >
> >   def now
> >     self.time = Time.now
> >   end
> > end
>
>     As an aside, I'm still learning Ruby and am curious to know why you
> choose to use self.time instead of @time.  Is there some sort of gatcha
> about using instance variables (object variables?) that I don't know about?
>     Thank you...

attr_accessor :time creates an attribute (@time) and two accessor
methods:
   def time
   #return the value in our attribute
     @time
   end

   def time=(other)
   #set the attribute to the given value
     @time = other
   end


self.time.sec calls the time method of self to get the value of @time
and calls the method sec on it

self.time = Time.now assigns the value of Time.now to the attribute via
the time= method of self.
cheers