From: Justin Collins <justincollins@...>
Date: 2008-04-23T11:56:12+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby and object paradigm

Andres wrote:
> Hi ruby list,
>
> I�m a smalltalk developer and now i'm beginning with Ruby. I found
> words like "puts" on the ruby syntax that i don�t understand.
>
> The basic object paradigm formula is "receiver + message", an emisor
> send a message to a receiver.
>
> Is puts a message? if the answer is true, then what is the receiver?
> and when is "puts" implemented? if the answer is false, then What is
> "puts"?
>
>
>   

"puts" is a message and is implemented in the Kernel module:
http://ruby-doc.org/core/classes/Kernel.html#M005995

The implicit receiver is "self", which at the top level is an object 
called "main".

> the message #ifTrue:ifFalse: is implemented in the class Boolean and
> in his subclasses, and receive two block argmuments, the behavior if
> the boolean is true and the behavior if the boolean is false. I don�t
> understand like it works in ruby, when is implemented the message "if
> else"?
>
> Thanks
> Andr�s
>
>
>   

In Ruby, "if" and family are keywords, not messages. I suspect this is 
because Ruby doesn't have the ability to do "keyworded" methods, making 
something like "if...elseif...else..." difficult.

-Justin