From: Steven Smolinski <steven.smolinski@...>
Date: 2003-02-07T08:35:08+09:00
Subject: Private lvalue methods unusable?

I'm learning Ruby, and trying to grasp the non-declarative concept with
some small difficulties.  Specifically, I can't use a private lvalue
method the way I want.  Please excuse me if this is a FAQ, but I
couldn't find it.

Let's say I have a class with a private method, say:

  private
  def dollars=(someDollars)
    @cents = someDollars * 100
  end

And if I want to use this method from some other method in the class, I
always create a local variable instead.  I can't prepend the method name
with a receiver ("self") because the method is private.

For exmaple, this assigns to a local variable instead of using the
private method above:

  public
  def fillWallet
    dollars = 100
    puts "Wow!  You've got $" + dollars().to_s
  end

How do I call a private lvalue method?

Steve
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