From: Kaye Ng <sbstn26@...>
Date: 2011-03-30T18:33:00+09:00
Subject: basic ENCAPSULATION help

This example demonstrates the use of 'private'

class Person
  def initialize(name)
    set_name(name)
  end
  def name
    @first_name + ' ' + @last_name
  end
  private
  def set_name(name)
    first_name, last_name = name.split(/\s+/)
    set_first_name(first_name)
    set_last_name(last_name)
  end
  def set_first_name(name)
    @first_name = name
  end
  def set_last_name(name)
    @last_name = name
  end
end

From the book:
" private tells Ruby that any methods declared in this class from
there on should be kept private. This means that only code within the
object’s methods can
access those private methods, whereas code outside of the class cannot.
For example, this code no longer works "

p = Person.new("Fred Bloggs")
p.set_last_name("Smith")
__________________________________________________________________________
NoMethodError: private method 'set_last_name' called for
#<Person:0x337b68
@last_name="Bloggs", @first_name="Fred">
___________________________________________________________________________

When the author says, "only code within the object’s methods can
access those private methods, whereas code outside of the class
cannot.", what is the code in the example that can "access those private
methods", and what is the "code outside of the class that cannot" ?

That's it for now, more questions later.  Apologies to the author of
this book, it's not you, it's me.  I'm a really slow learner.

Thanks guys!

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