From: jstern@... (Josh Stern)
Date: 2001-01-21T16:40:01+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:9634] Re: 101 Misconceptions About Dynamic Languages

Christian <christians@syd.microforte.com.au> wrote:

>A small, seemingly inconsequential aspect of Method is that it needs an
>Object to use.
>
>Sorry, this is bad. In general, not all functions are methods. Some problems
>do not require a context. Witness 'sort'. I am not changing the rules
>here -- I complained that Ruby does not have first-class functions. A method
>is not a function.

Proc's, mentioned earlier, are unamed function objects.  In Ruby,
the instance object also acts much like a namespace on its own,
as does the class (which is also an object).  Ruby does have its
version of what C++ calls static class member functions - they
are called class methods, and the class methods of the base
class Object are analogous to global functions in the global
namespace.

-= Josh