From: CBlair1986 <CBlair1986@...>
Date: 2007-01-20T17:40:12+09:00
Subject: attr_accessor weirdness, or something

Hi all! I've got a question, and I hope it can be answered. I'm
currently using attr_accessor to set up a list of variables that are
accessed throughout a class, and I'm running into trouble.

See, I've got something like the following:

class Test
  attr_accessor :timer
  def initialize
    @timer = Time.now
  end

  def update_timer
    timer = Time.now
  end
end

But, as simple as it looks, it doesn't work. I'll make a new Test
object and call update_timer all I want, and it won't update. It seems
a bit counter-intuitive. I've made an accessor for a variable that I
declare when initialized, and then go to change it, and it doesn't
work.

However, if I change the 'timer' in update_timer to '@timer', it works
perfectly fine. Why is this?

Thank you!