From: Regina George <lists@...>
Date: 2012-11-08T11:43:41+09:00
Subject: Re: Type confusion: Java vs. Ruby

Bartosz Dziewoński wrote in post #1083403:
> 2012/11/7 Regina George <lists@ruby-forum.com>:
>> Our challenge was to find out if type confusion was possible in other
>> languages, and my group got assigned Ruby. Can anyone offer some insight
>> or point to some resources?
>
> Every variable in your Ruby code in (internally) a C type called
> "VALUE", which is just a typedefed unsigned int pointer. This pointer
> points to a larger structure (in C, RBasic and other structs based on
> it, like RString), from which you can read the value's class and other
> properties. (Technically, this works differently for Ruby Fixnums and
> Symbols, whose values are magically encoded in the pointer value
> itself.)
>
> So it's not possible to have force this kind of behavior you describe
> in Ruby. However, as 7stud pointed out, instance variables (which are
> like private fields in Java) can be accessed and modified anyway with
> a little magic, and private or protected methods can be with some
> tricks called from the outside environment. This is by design, as far
> as I know.
>
> -- Matma Rex

That is really helpful! Thank you! I feel like I understand this a lot 
better.

-Regina

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