From: Steven Smolinski <steven.smolinski@...>
Date: 2003-02-07T11:55:40+09:00
Subject: Re: Private lvalue methods unusable?

Gavin Sinclair <gsinclair@soyabean.com.au> wrote:
> On Friday, February 7, 2003, 10:35:08 AM, Steven wrote:
 
>> How do I call a private lvalue method?
 
> Hmmm.... so self.dollars = 100 doesn't work, eh?  Only answer I can
> think of is
> 
>    self.send(:dollars=, 100)
> 
> Beautiful, isn't it? ;)

It's as ugly as sin, but it works as advertised. :-)

> Actually, a better answer came to mind.  Make :dollars= protected
> instead of private.  It works.

That works also, but it changes the spec.  So does redefining the method
signature, like so: def dollars(aNumber).  That also works, but changes
the spec.

I'll just have to put this down as a "gotcha" and carry on.  Is there a
list of places Ruby doesn't follow the least surprise principle?

Thanks for the help,
Steve
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