From: Justin Collins <justincollins@...>
Date: 2010-09-13T12:59:43+09:00
Subject: Re: uninitialized constant Connector(Name Error)

On 09/12/2010 06:20 PM, Tay Thotheolh wrote:
> Is this problem really that uncommon ?
>
> Tay Thotheolh wrote:
>    
>> I have seen a thread that has nearly the same problems but I guess mine
>> should be some other problems.
>>
>> I had my Connector.rb and test.rb classes next to each other so it
>> should be able to interact.
>>
>> Do bear with me as I am very new to ruby. I just started to experiment
>> abit with ruby lately.
>>      

Hi Tay,

For future questions, please describe the results you are trying to 
achieve and how what you see differs from what you want. Include error 
messages if they exist. If your code is not too long (and in this case 
it really isn't) it is easier for people to help if it is directly 
included in your email.

It appears that you are expecting Ruby to "know" that the Connector 
class (really the Connector constant) is defined in the Connector.rb 
file (in a Java-ish) way. That's not how Ruby works. You need to 
explicitly "load" or "require" a file. For example, add

   require "connector"   #if you are using Ruby 1.8

or

   require_relative "connector" #if you are using 1.9.2

to the top of your test.rb file.

However, you will quickly find that you get a new error. Something like:

   test.rb:13:in `dotest': undefined method `new' for Connector:Module 
(NoMethodError)
       from test.rb:28:in `<main>'

I think you want Connector to be a class, not a module. Modules are not 
instantiated as instances, only classes are.

Okay. Now your code will likely work, but there are still some issues. 
In Connector.rb (by the way, the convention would be to have the file 
name lower-cased), you have this:

   #Globals
   @hostname;
   @port;
   @soc;

First of all, conventionally semicolons are only used when you want 
multiple expressions sharing the same line. They are completely 
redundant here.

Secondly, these are not really globals. Globals begin with a dollar sign 
($). But why even bother? You do not use these as globals. You can get 
rid of these lines completely.

Here's some more code:

   def send(message) # send tcp messages
     @soc.puts(message);
     return @soc.gets;
   end

Methods in Ruby return the last value by default, so "return" here is 
not needed.

And some more:

   def close()

     if(!(@soc.closed?)==true)
       @soc.close
     end

   end

A more idiomatic way to write this would be:


   def close

     @soc.close unless @soc.closed?

   end

And for this:

   def is_closed()
     return @soc.closed?
   end

The Rubyish way would be:

   def closed?
     @soc.closed?
   end


Hope that helps.

-Justin