From: Kristof Bastiaensen <kristof@...>
Date: 2004-04-22T01:19:06+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby proposal: MAIN_BINDING

> If "a" is previously defined as a variable, the compiler causes the
> "puts a" command to simply output its value; but if "a" is not
> previously defined, my understanding is that "puts a" interprets "a" as
> a method call.  In this case, "eval" statement (whose command is not, of
> course, touched by the interpreter) indeed sets the "a" variable in the
> global scope, but the "print" statement doesn't access it.

I think you meant "local scope"?

> 
> I'm don't know if there's a syntactical way around this.

There are ways, but they aren't beautiful.
for example:

eval("a = 4")
puts a = a
=> 4

By the asignment ruby will treat a as a local variable
and give the right result.