From: Ian Hobson <ian.hobson@...>
Date: 2009-07-15T06:01:11+09:00
Subject: Re: Twelve rules of Ruby

Joel VanderWerf wrote:
> Rick DeNatale wrote:
>> On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 11:46 AM, David A. Black<dblack@rubypal.com> 
>> wrote:
>>>>> Objects don't "have" methods
>> First of all, as you just stated, object DO in a sense have methods,
>> in the same sense I have, say, an iPhone, because I know how to find
>> it, usually.
>
> Yep. You said it better than I was about to (not just this line, but 
> the whole post). I was going to say "people don't 'have' bank 
> accounts; they have the intelligence to perform transactions by 
> visiting a web site and  entering a password.
>
> As you say, the location of such intelligence is a question that can 
> wait until someone starts poking around in the interpreter.
>
> For a beginner, it's more important to have a _model_ of how method 
> lookup works (model in the sense of science, not rails). If the 
> easiest way of stating this model is in terms of what methods an 
> object has (and what class they were acquired from), so be it.
>
Hi Joel,

I agree that a beginner needs a model. It is (IMHO) more important that 
the model helps him achieve his goals, than is accurate to the Nth 
degree.  A rule of thumb - it must not miss-lead.

The art of learning is to update your models as you need them updating, 
so you are neither miss-led by their shortcomings or tricked into error. 
I see the ability to help with this, as a key skill for anyone who 
professes to teach or educate.

Knowing when to discard a model, and how to persuade someone to do it, 
are really interesting (and I think important) questions.

Regards

Ian