From: "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...>
Date: 2003-10-02T23:06:35+09:00
Subject: Re: Instance- and class-variables (was Re: mixing in class methods)

The assymetry between class/instance variables and class/instance
methods has always bothered me.  It seems to me that it would
make more sense for class variables to be the same as instance
varaibles of the class object.  That is:

class Foo
    @@var = 1
    class << self
	# @var here should refer to @@var
    ...
    end
end

This was, indeed, what I expected to be the case upon my first
exposure to these Ruby concepts.  But instead, there are effectively
three categories of variable instead of two, and the @@ category seems to
me to behave very oddly.  

Guess this is just another case where the principle-of-least-surprise-to-Matz
is not the same as the principle-of-least-surprise-to-Mark. :)

-Mark