From: ts <decoux@...>
Date: 2001-09-25T22:20:48+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:21670] Re: Help understanding self ...

>>>>> "P" == Phil Mitchell <phil.$DELETEmitchell@pobox.com> writes:

P> I'm defining a simple class that extends Hash. The code below
P> works. What I don't understand is why I can't replace  
P> the line: "self[key] = key" with "[key] = key"? If I leave out the
P> "self", I get a parse error. Why? 

 Well, because `[something]' is valid only as a rhs. If ruby always
 interpret `[something]' as `self[something]' how do you make this work ? 

  a = [1, 2]   # create an Array

 In some case `a = self[1, 2]' can give an error 

pigeon% ruby -e 'a = self[1, 2]'
-e:1: undefined method `[]' for #<Object:0x401c1c90> (NameError)
pigeon% 


Guy Decoux