self.puts?

[Derek Chesterfield]

I am trying to convince myself that Ruby is fully OO [I'm not
suggesting it isn't!].

So writing 'object.method' sends a message 'method' to 'object', and
writing 'method' implies sending to self. So how come the result of
'puts' is different to the result of 'self.puts'?

> $ irb
> irb(main):001:0> puts "hello"
> hello
> => nil
> irb(main):002:0> self.puts "hello"
> NoMethodError: private method `puts' called for main:Object
> from (irb):2

I'm sure this is a semantic question, but I can't figure it out! How
come 'self.puts' find the private puts method of Object, whereas
'puts' finds Kernel.puts?

[Stefan Lang]

Both find the private method "puts", which is defined in the
Kernel module. The Kernel module is included in the Object class.

Ruby doesn't allow that a private method is called with an explicit
receiver. If you write "self.puts", "self" is an explicit receiver.
If you simply write "puts" the receiver is implicitly "self".

Also try:

$irb
irb(main):001:0> class A
irb(main):002:1> def foo
irb(main):003:2> puts "hello, this is the foo method"
irb(main):004:2> bar
irb(main):005:2> self.bar
irb(main):006:2> end
irb(main):007:1> private
irb(main):008:1> def bar
irb(main):009:2> puts "hello, this is the bar method"
irb(main):010:2> end
irb(main):011:1> end
=> nil
irb(main):012:0> a = A.new
=> #<A:0x402e30fc>
irb(main):013:0> a.bar
NoMethodError: private method `bar' called for #<A:0x402e30fc>
from (irb):13
irb(main):014:0> a.foo
hello, this is the foo method
hello, this is the bar method
NoMethodError: private method `bar' called for #<A:0x402e30fc>
from (irb):5:in `foo'
from (irb):14

HTH,
Stefan

[Derek Chesterfield]

On 24 Sep 2005, at 12:47pm, Stefan Lang wrote:

> On Saturday 24 September 2005 12:30, Derek Chesterfield wrote:
>
>> how come the
>> result of 'puts' is different to the result of 'self.puts'?
>

> Ruby doesn't allow that a private method is called with an explicit
> receiver. If you write "self.puts", "self" is an explicit receiver.
> If you simply write "puts" the receiver is implicitly "self".

Ah - I knew it was semantics! Thanks for your explanation. It makes
perfect sense now: because it is a private method, you *shouldn't*
need to write it explicitly! This code also solidified it for me:

> $ irb
> irb(main):001:0> module Kernel
> irb(main):002:1> public :puts
> irb(main):003:1> end
> => Kernel
> irb(main):004:0> puts "asd"
> asd
> => nil
> irb(main):005:0> self.puts "asd"
> asd
> => nil

Thanks again!

[Robert Klemme]

Note also that you can call private methods with send:

self.send(:puts, "foo")

Kind regards

robert

[Devin Mullins]

Stefan Lang wrote:

>Both find the private method "puts", which is defined in the
>Kernel module. The Kernel module is included in the Object class.
>
>Ruby doesn't allow that a private method is called with an explicit
>receiver. If you write "self.puts", "self" is an explicit receiver.
>If you simply write "puts" the receiver is implicitly "self".
>
>

There's one exception to this rule, which'll probably kick you in the
pants somewhere down the line if you're not aware of it:

irb(main):001:0> class Moo
irb(main):002:1> private
irb(main):003:1> def loorg=(fun_size)
irb(main):004:2> end
irb(main):005:1> public
irb(main):006:1> def tooop
irb(main):007:2> self.loorg = 5
irb(main):008:2> end
irb(main):009:1> end
=> nil
irb(main):010:0> pants = Moo.new
=> #<Moo:0x2cf40e0>
irb(main):011:0> pants.tooop
=> 5
irb(main):012:0> pants.loorg = 5
NoMethodError: private method `loorg=' called for #<Moo:0x2cf40e0>
from (irb):12
irb(main):013:0>

That is, "self." is not considered an explicit receiver if the method
name ends in a "=". That's because "loorg = 5" would just set a local
variable, so the Ruby way to call the "loorg=" method is to use "self.".

devin