From: Daniel Finnie <danfinnie@...>
Date: 2006-12-15T09:59:50+09:00
Subject: Why is define_method private? Plus, what's the point of private methods?

Why is define_method a private method?  I can't recall ever using 
define_method on the class I was working in, only using 
class.send(:define_method)....

Personally, I find that the following:
Class.define_method(:foo, &myBlock)

is much cleaner than this:
Class.send(:define_method, :foo, &myBlock)

What are the advantages to having define_method be private?  Are there 
any cons to having it public?  I can find one con to having it private 
and no pros, which leads my to my main question...why is it private?

Also, a quick philosophy question:
What is the point of private methods if you can bypass their private 
status so easily?  I know it isn't meant as a security measure or 
anything but it just seems silly.  The only reason I can think of is 
having too many methods cluttering up the RDocs if everything was 
public, but this is easily solved by having a method being private just 
meaning that it doesn't show up in the docs.

The same arguments apply to protected methods also, IMO.

Now, I know someone will mention that Ruby 1.9 won't allow calling 
private methods with an explicit receiver through send, but, according 
to my "research," Kernel#__send and Kernel#funcall will.
(http://eigenclass.org/hiki.rb?Changes+in+Ruby+1.9#l22)

Thanks,
Dan Finnie