From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2006-07-30T23:20:16+09:00
Subject: Re: what is the scope of this object

Sch�le Daniel wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> irb(main):001:0>
> irb(main):002:0* class A
> irb(main):003:1> def secret;"you found me";end
> irb(main):004:1> end
> => nil
> irb(main):005:0> class BlackHole
> irb(main):006:1> a=A.new
> irb(main):007:1> end
> => #<A:0x40224e50>
> irb(main):008:0> ObjectSpace.each_object(){|obj| $found=obj if 
> obj.respond_to? :secret }
> => 5252
> irb(main):009:0> $found
> => #<A:0x40224e50>
> irb(main):010:0> $found.secret
> => "you found me"
> irb(main):011:0>
> 
> seemingly a is not dead inside BlackHole
> is there a civilized way to get to it? (not through ObjectSpace)
> 
> I know Ruby has @@ and @ for variables, everything else are methods
> if defined inside a class like in example above
> 
> but where do object like a go if defined inside a class?
> 
> Regards, Daniel

It's a local variable that goes out of scope when the class body is 
closed.  The fact that you can access it via ObjectSpace does not proove 
much.  The instance is likely not yet garbage collected when you start 
ObjectSpace.each_object.  Also note, that it's dangerous to rely on IRB 
when it comes to local variables and such as IRB behaves slightly 
different than the Ruby interpreter due to the line by line mode.

Kind regards

	robert