From: Paul Lutus Date: 2006-12-06T11:40:05+09:00 Subject: Re: Unexpected scope range Eric Hodel wrote: / ... > There is no such thing as a "class instance variable" in Ruby. Assertion 1. > Classes are real objects too, and they have "instance variables" just > like everybody else. Assertion 2 appears to contradict assertion 1. Strictly speaking, this is about classes, only peripherally about Ruby, and Ruby shouldn't deviate from the general terminology used to describe classes and their aspects. If you want assert that there is such a thing as a class instance variable that is global to all members of the class ... hey, go for it. I find it confusing, reasonable people will differ. IMHO, classes _have_ instances, but classes are not themselves instances. Objects created using class constructors are instances of that class. I don't normally do this (it comes off as an empty appeal to authority), but please look at page 388 of the Pickaxe book, under the heading "class instance variables". The discussion is about what you have been calling instance variables, and I have been calling ... class instance variables. -- Paul Lutus http://www.arachnoid.com