From: Greg Weeks Date: 2007-11-17T07:27:49+09:00 Subject: Re: meta-class subclass relationships >> True if "real" means "non-virtual", as it so often does. But that >> leaves >> virtual metaclasses, at the heart of Ruby metaprogramming. > > I'm not sure in what sense they're virtual (though I know that > terminology occurs in some error messages). Once they're created, they > exist as first-class objects. Right. But they can't be instantiated, and they are specially handled by various reflection methods (eg, #class completely ignores them). The term "virtual" didn't appeal to me much either, but Pickaxe and the error messages both use it. -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.