From: Steve Tu <lists@...>
Date: 2013-02-01T22:17:36+09:00
Subject: Re: Novice: self, @self.respond_to? and dynamically built methods

Joel Pearson wrote in post #1094736:
> Have you tried self.methods.include?

Joel,
Just tried, but no joy.
BUT...
I tried adding the full method footprint into the self.respond_to? and 
that then seemed to work - seemed being the operative word, as I looked 
more at respond_to? and I read that the second argument is a flag for 
checking private methods. So, that implies that somehow, my 'local' 
methods have been classed as private? I can't see a private statement in 
my code at all - are methods in 'main' then classed as private by 
default?

That also then made me think whether what I'm trying to achieve (all be 
it in learning mode) is possible.
If respond_to? only checks if that method name is valid for the given 
object, I still have the problem of knowing what the method's footprint 
is.

In my case, I have a whole series of tutorial modules - mainly called 
foo_test (ie array_test, hash_test, range_test...etc) - which can then 
optionally take arguments - ie in my hash_test, there may be umpteen 
sub-subjects - each being triggered by the option passed (ie 
hash_test(1) will show me blah, hash_test(2)...)

So what I was after was dynamically building foo_test from the command 
line argument(s) and then calling the method, with or without arguments. 
But if respond_to? doesn't check the footprint, I still end up with a 
crash. Given that, is a better practice to simply call the method with 
and without the arguments, catching any error and simply not bothering 
to see if the object responds to that method?

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