From: Xavier Noria <fxn@...>
Date: 2008-09-07T00:37:41+09:00
Subject: Re: is it possible to turn a private method into a public one?

On Fri, Sep 5, 2008 at 11:06 PM, Lex Williams <etaern@yahoo.com> wrote:

> could a private/protected method be turned into a public one ?

Sure.

On the one hand you can circumvect access control with Object#send:

   object.send(:method_name_even_if_private, ...)

And yes, you indeed can change the visibility:

    class C
      private
      def foo
        puts "it works"
      end
    end

    c = C.new
    begin
      c.foo
    rescue
      puts $!
      C.send(:public, :foo)
      c.foo
    end
    # =>
    # private method `foo' called for #<C:0x22013c>
    # it works

That public is similar to the private call in C, only done out of the
class and via #send because it is private.

It is interesting to note that we've been able to call the method on
an object that was created when #foo was private, as the raised
exception proves. That's because method calls are resolved on a per
call basis due to the dynamic nature of Ruby.