<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div>On Jul-18-2013, at 1:59 PM, Hemant Kumar <<a href="mailto:hemant@codemancers.com">hemant@codemancers.com</a>> wrote:</div><blockquote type="cite"><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">In Ruby no matter where you are, you always have a `self` object. When you inside a instance method of a class, self is the instance of that class. When you are defining a class method, `self` is the class. </div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><br></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">Ruby also has a concept of "default definee". When you define a method without an explicit receiver, the method is defined as instance method in the "default definee" class. </div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><br></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">When you are in global scope, the self is an object called 'main'. Object 'main' is a very special object in Ruby. It is an instance of class `Object` itself and very curiously has dual nature, which means it can behave as an object and sometimes as a class.</div></blockquote></div><div><br></div>This is a good read on the subject, even if it doesn't answer the question explicitly<div><br></div><div><a href="http://yehudakatz.com/2009/11/15/metaprogramming-in-ruby-its-all-about-the-self/">http://yehudakatz.com/2009/11/15/metaprogramming-in-ruby-its-all-about-the-self/</a></div><div><div> --<br>Tejas Dinkar<br><a href="http://www.nilenso.com">http://www.nilenso.com</a><br>m: (+91) 98455 72696<br>skype: tdinkar<br>
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