From: James Coglan <jcoglan@...>
Date: 2009-08-06T21:16:36+09:00
Subject: Re: Kernel's module methods?

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2009/8/6 Brian Candler <b.candler@pobox.com>

> 7stud -- wrote:
> > How come you can call Kernel methods without a receiver?
>
> If I understand it rightly: because self is the top level object 'main',
> and main is an *instance* of Object.


I think the point being raised is that when you mix a module into a class,
the class gains the module's instance methods, but not its module/singleton
methods. So it seems that the only way you'd be able to call Kernel's module
methods without a receiver would be if `self` were equal to `Kernel`. But
seeing as how you can call these methods sans receiver anywhere in your
program, I assume the Kernel methods are given special treatment and don't
follow the usual scoping rules for method calls.

Another way you could do this is by having all objects inherit from Kernel's
eigenclass, but that's also not allowed in user code so again this points at
special treatment of Kernel code in the Ruby VM.

--
James Coglan
http://jcoglan.com

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