From: Warren Brown <wkb@...>
Date: 2003-06-27T02:08:13+09:00
Subject: Re: Another Run Time Evaluation Q:

>  My example work not because the variable was
> created before the eval, but because ruby has
> seen *at compile time* that `a' is a variable.
> 
>  If you write
> 
>    ruby -ve 'str = "a=2"; eval(str,binding); puts a'
> 
>  at compile time, `puts a' is interpreted as a
> method call, i.e. `puts a()'

  To further illustrate this point:

irb(main):001:0> VERSION
=> "1.6.8"
irb(main):002:0> str = "a = 2"; eval(str); puts a
NameError: undefined local variable or method `a' for #<Object:0x810fcd8>
        from (irb):2
irb(main):003:0> a
=> 2
irb(main):004:0>

    - Warren Brown