From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2011-11-24T00:04:12+09:00
Subject: Re: private and protected

On Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 3:08 PM, Peter Hickman
<peterhickman386@googlemail.com> wrote:
> The call 'self.phrase' is a call to a class method

I am sorry, this is wrong.  A class method would be called with
"self.class.phrase".  "self.phrase" attempts to invoke an instance
method.

> but 'def phrase' is
> the definition of an instance method. Either remove the self in the
> say method or change 'def phrase' to 'def self.phrase'.
>
> It has nothing to do with private or protected.

It has:

irb(main):001:0> class First
irb(main):002:1> def say_1; self.phrase; end
irb(main):003:1> def say_2; phrase; end
irb(main):004:1> private
irb(main):005:1> def phrase;"ph";end
irb(main):006:1> end
=> nil
irb(main):007:0> f = First.new
=> #<First:0x10183174>
irb(main):008:0> f.say_1
NoMethodError: private method `phrase' called for #<First:0x10183174>
        from (irb):2:in `say_1'
        from (irb):8
        from /opt/bin/irb19:12:in `<main>'
irb(main):009:0> f.say_2
=> "ph"

See Daniel's explanation.

Kind regards

robert

-- 
remember.guy do |as, often| as.you_can - without end
http://blog.rubybestpractices.com/