From: Brian Candler <B.Candler@...>
Date: 2007-05-05T03:32:06+09:00
Subject: Re: Top-level

On Fri, May 04, 2007 at 08:50:01PM +0900, Lucas Holland wrote:
> Ah, I see. Okay, so I can call puts like a 'standalone function' because 
> of the following: When I run a Ruby script, an object called 'main' is 
> instanciated. It's an instance of the Object class. The Object class 
> includes puts via a mixin from the Kernel module. It's thus like a 
> private instance method of Object.
> 
> When I call puts, I don't specify a receiver. That's why Ruby takes self 
> as the receiver. At the top level, self refers to the main object. So my 
> call is basically main.puts

Roughly. Except you can't actually call it that way, because it's private.

> puts is a *private* instance method of Object, so why can I call it from 
> an instance (main being the instance in this case)?

'Private' means it can *only* be called on self, and only using the implicit
form (where you don't specify a receiver).

HTH,

Brian.