From: Phrogz <gavin@...>
Date: 2007-03-04T00:30:06+09:00
Subject: Re: define a function inside a method

On Mar 3, 7:41 am, Olivier Renaud <o.ren...@laposte.net> wrote:
> I wrote a method which uses recursion, internally. As a test, I tried to
> define the recursive function inside the method that is called :

Time to investigate:

class Foo
  def bar
    p jim rescue p "no jim yet"
    def jim; "jim"; end
    jim
  end
end

f1 = Foo.new

p f1.jim rescue p "no jim yet"
#=> "no jim yet"

p f1.bar
#=> "no jim yet"
#=> "jim"

p f1.jim
#=> "jim"

f2 = Foo.new
p f2.jim
#=> "jim"

p f1.method( :jim )
#=> #<Method: Foo#jim>


What I deduce from this is that running Foo#bar causes a new instance
method "jim" to be defined for the Foo class. The only thing this gets
you is delayed method realization, once only, per class. It's not a
private function for the use by that method only.