[LRUG] Private methods

[Matthew Rudy Jacobs]

2009/1/26 Kenneth Lee <kenfodder at gmail.com>:
> Well I found the explanation, private methods can't be called with an
> explicit receiver even if it is self:
>
> http://weblog.jamisbuck.org/2007/2/23/method-visibility-in-ruby
>
> I sometimes like to explicitly write self as it helps readability, but in
> this case it breaks the sematics of the language.


That's almost true,
except private "=" methods work with a self.

eg.

def secret
  @secret
end
private :secret

def secret=(value)
  @secret = value
end
private :secret=

>> self.secret = 12
=> 12
>> secret
=> 12

else it is ambiguous whether you're calling a private writer method,
or declaring a local variable

>> secret = 24 # a local variable?
=> 24
>> puts secret # if we just set a local variable, will this now print the local variable, or the call to the private method?

that's why I always seem to use "protected"
as you say "self." is nice and unambiguous.

Matthew Rudy