From: Sourav <soura.jagat@...>
Date: 2006-09-21T17:45:24+09:00
Subject: access specifiers

Hi,
I am new to Ruby and after progamming in several other languages, I am
really enjoying the fun of Ruby. I had question regarding the access
specifiers in Ruby; suppose the following two classes,

class C1
  private
  def aMethod
    "I am a method"
  end
end

class C2 < C1
  public :aMethod
end

In C1, aMethod was private, but in C2 it became public... so this way,
any private method of a class can be converted to public methods. So
then what is the use of having them (private methods) in the first
place at all! In C++, there is a rule that, an object (data or
function) of lower access-specifier can be upgraded to higher
acc-specifier but the reverse is not true. Should it not also be
implemented in Ruby?

I'm a beginner, so please let me know if I'm missing anything. Thanks
in advance.