From: Rob Biedenharn <Rob@...>
Date: 2006-11-01T22:55:05+09:00
Subject: Re: variable access through self

On Nov 1, 2006, at 12:09 AM, John Wilger wrote:

> On 10/31/06, Michael P. Soulier <msoulier@digitaltorque.ca> wrote:
>> I've seen a lot of examples in Rails code where they're accessing  
>> what appear
>> to be instance variables from self. Something like
>>
>> self.foo = true
>>
>> Now, I'm assuming that you can only access methods this way, so  
>> this is
>> actually a method call of
>>
>> self.foo=(true)
>>
>> Is that right? I'm not always clear on it.
>
> That is correct.
>
> -- 
> Regards,
> John Wilger
> http://johnwilger.com
>
> -----------
> Alice came to a fork in the road. "Which road do I take?" she asked.
> "Where do you want to go?" responded the Cheshire cat.
> "I don't know," Alice answered.
> "Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."
> - Lewis Carrol, Alice in Wonderland

And you're also apparently a bit confused about what's really happening.

self.foo = true
becomes:
self.foo=(true)
which typically implies something like:

def foo=(foo)
   @foo = foo
end

But you probably are more used to seeing something like:

attr_accessor :foo

which sets up the "def foo;@foo;end" and "def foo=(foo);@foo=foo;end"  
for you.

-Rob

Rob Biedenharn		http://agileconsultingllc.com
Rob@AgileConsultingLLC.com