From: Logan Capaldo <logancapaldo@...>
Date: 2006-12-17T07:09:08+09:00
Subject: Re: Why is define_method private? Plus, what's the point of private methods?

On Fri, Dec 15, 2006 at 09:59:50AM +0900, Daniel Finnie wrote:
> 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?
> 
Well a class should control it's own methods, just saying
Class.define_method ... without any context looks dangerous. (Using send
even more so). Obviously it is there to be used, but I think the
assumption is that you do this:

Class.class_eval do
  define_method(:foo) { ... }
  ...
end

It looks more like
class Class
  def foo
    ...
  end
end

that way anyway.