From: Intransition <transfire@...>
Date: 2010-04-07T00:34:34+09:00
Subject: public/private/protected instead of def

First of all, I am curious. Is there any way to do the following but
still retain backward compatibility?

  class Module
    # unfortunately super doesn't work
    alias :publicize :public
    alias :privatize :private
    alias :protect   :protected

    def public(name, &code)
      define_method(name, &code) if code
      publicize(name)
    end

    def private(name, &code)
      define_method(name, &code) if code
      privatize(name)
    end

    def protected(name, &code)
      define_method(name, &code) if code
      protect(name)
    end
  end

Example

  class X

    public :x do |*a|
      p a
    end

    private :y do |*a|
      p a
    end

    protected :z do |*a|
      p a
    end

  end

Secondly, I guess 'def' was just nice because of it's uniformity
throughout modules and classes, but I have to wonder if the more Java
like to use of public/private/protected might ultimately be a bit more
beneficial (especially if they could be generalized to allow the
definition of others via meta-programming). Classes might look more
like:

  class X

    public_accessor :a

    private_reader :b

    protected_writer :c

    public x(*a)
      p a
    end

    private y(*a)
      p a
    end

    protected z(*a)
      p a
    end

  end