class#method notation

[guoxi...@gmail.com]

what's the purpose of Ruby's Foo#bar notation(what's wrong with
Foo.bar)? does this mean class Foo's instance method bar or Foo's class
method bar, or both?

ri command seems support both.

[wannes]

On 18/10/05, guoxi...@gmail.com <guoxi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> what's the purpose of Ruby's Foo#bar notation(what's wrong with
> Foo.bar)? does this mean class Foo's instance method bar or Foo's class
> method bar, or both?

They both have different meanings:

Foo#bar : bar is an instance method of the class Foo
Foo.bar : bar is a class method of the class Foo

Hopes this helps a bit.

grtz,
wannes

[Kevin Ballard]

You can also use Foo::bar to mean a class method, but that form is
traditionally used to refer to constants rather than methods.

[Jamis Buck]

In documentation, Foo#bar specifically indicates an instance method
of Foo. Foo::bar specifically indicates a class method. The problem
with the Foo.bar syntax is that it is ambiguous (in documentation),
since it can refer to either a class method or an instance method.

- Jamis

[Xiaotian Guo]

that makes sense, thanks!