From: Paul <prcorcoran@...>
Date: 2006-08-20T02:10:12+09:00
Subject: Re: Class variables in Ruby

Hi Gary,

I'm not quite sure what you mean by using "an instance variable of the
class object". I am familiar with class variables and instance
variables. In my case I wanted to cache the data in a class variable
because *any* instance could reference the single class variable. Is
there yet another type of variable (other than temporary method scope
variables) that one could define?

Thanks,
Paul

gwtmp01@mac.com wrote:
> On Aug 19, 2006, at 12:00 PM, Paul wrote:
> > Thanks for the comments. I am coming from a Smalltalk background
> > and we
> > would typically cache code/description lookup table rows into a class
> > variable for performance.
>
> Just a side note.  It isn't necessary to use class variables to
> accomplish your goal.  A plain old instance variable of the class object
> is just fine.  I'm not a big fan of Ruby class variables.  I think they
> are often used simply because they are confused with instance variables
> of a class object.
> 
> Gary Wright