From: John Joyce <dangerwillrobinsondanger@...>
Date: 2007-03-28T21:56:52+09:00
Subject: Re: general question (different between methods and functions)?

The answer does depend on the language in question!
The difference is small and (arguably) unimportant in Ruby. In C++ or  
Objective-C the difference and distinction is more clear and more  
important.

Some people would argue the semantic difference between a function  
and a method, but in most cases, in most languages they're pretty  
much the same.
The main difference is that a method is "part" of an object. It must  
understand (respond to) or "have" the method in its definition. (or  
inherit the method from an ancestor class)

A function in the strictest sense is a bit of code that is defined  
and named and can be called and run by that name. It may take  
arguments (parameters) and / or return a value of some sort.

In Ruby almost everything is an object...

Objective-C, has a similar concept of methods and messages to Ruby,  
but also has C as it's strict subset, it is a good place to find out  
about the differences and similarities.
On Mar 28, 2007, at 9:34 PM, Yamal Khaled Soueidan wrote:

> Thats what I meant, functions is used without the object, and are  
> called
> direct, whereas the methods is used with the object.
>
> puts "this is a function"
>
> File.puts "this is object.method"
>
> Is this how everyone see it or do many people have different  
> opinion on this
> subject?
>
> On 3/28/07, James Edward Gray II <james@grayproductions.net> wrote:
>>
>> On Mar 28, 2007, at 3:42 AM, SonOfLilit wrote:
>>
>> > Methods are associated with a receiver object.
>> >
>> > Functions are not.
>> >
>> > The only things you can call functions in Ruby are lambdas, blocks,
>> > ... Even then it's not clear whether they are methods or functions.
>> >
>> > Everything else is methods.
>>
>> The above is all true, but we do sometimes refer to calling methods
>> in a "function-style" in Ruby.  That's when you call a method without
>> an explicit receiver.  For example:
>>
>>    puts "Hello world!"       # function-style
>>    file.puts "Hello world!"  # normal method call
>>
>> Everything is still a method, this is just a name we use for the call
>> style.
>>
>> I only bring it up because it is sometimes referred to in the
>> documentation for things like private scope and module_function.
>>
>> James Edward Gray II
>>
>>
>>