From: Robert McGovern <robertm@...>
Date: 2002-12-04T20:02:53+09:00
Subject: Private Class Method Confusion

I made a class which has simply class methods, the intention is that the 
class will not be instaniated. Inside it, one method was made private 
(using private_class_method) however when I try to call that private 
method from another class method I get a NoMethodError exception.

I would have expected it to work as I am not attempting to call the 
method from outside the class. Anyone any thoughts?

Output is:

 >ruby class_method_test.rb
class_method_test.rb:5:in `store': private method `clear' called for 
Test:Class (NoMethodError)
	from class_method_test.rb:21
 >Exit code: 1

Code:

class Test
	@@value = nil
	
	def Test.store (x)
		Test.clear #line 5
		value = x
	end
	
	def Test.get_value
		x
	end
	
	def Test.clear
		value = nil
	end
	
	private_class_method :clear

end #test

Test.store(1) #line 21
p Test.get_value
Test.clear