From: "David A. Black" <dblack@...>
Date: 2004-04-14T09:59:52+09:00
Subject: Re: Interesting Scoping Rules

Hi --

On Wed, 14 Apr 2004, Charles Comstock wrote:

> 
> val = "fem"
> class Test
>    puts val
> end
> 
> # or
> 
> class Test
>    val = "A"
>    def info
> 	puts val
>    end
> end
> 
> Test.new.info
> 
> #  or
> 
> val = 1
> def t
> 	puts val
> end
> t
> 
> Why is it none of these are allowed?  All of these seem like perfectly 
> logical places that lexical scoping would allow.  It really suprised me 
> that none of thse work, anyone have an explanation for this behavior?

My explanation is kind of circular, I guess: those variables are out
of scope because def starts a new scope :-)  I'm so used to it I don't
really notice it.  I don't have any real technical insight into why
it's that way.  

But I just wanted to add... don't forget you can use #define_method if
you want to keep the same scope:

  class A
    a = 1
    define_method("b", lambda { puts a })
  end

  A.new.b  # 1


David

-- 
David A. Black
dblack@wobblini.net