From: Ryan Davis <ryand-ruby@...>
Date: 2009-11-16T12:37:19+09:00
Subject: Re: Any official name for Ruby's class which makes "class methods"?


On Nov 15, 2009, at 18:45 , Hunt Jon wrote:

> We all know Ruby really doesn't have class methods.
> 
> But how do you call such classes that have "class methods"?

This question is different from your subject.

A class that has class methods is just called a class. So I shall assume that the word "make" in the subject is the actual key to your question...

Assuming I interpret the question correctly, the question itself is flawed. Since ruby isn't metacircularly defined, there isn't a class that makes/creates class methods (or singleton methods on a class instance... I shall call them class methods). Either the parser creates them when it loads and evals a file, or the methods are dynamically created at runtime via one of many methods.

If you're instead asking "what's the name of the final destination of a class method?" then ... yeah. prolly eigenclass or metaclass. I prefer to think of them simply as "class methods" and not worry about it.

> Trying to figure it out by looking into documentation, but I haven't found
> any official call.

yeah. I think that is partially because the slightly mislabeled "class method" is good enough for most of us and we simply haven't needed a more accurate term for 99% of our discussions.