Method visibility VS accessibility

ruby-talk
1

Hi guys,
I've done java for a few years and ruby is pretty new to me. In java, a
method has visibility(private, protected, public) and
accessibility(static, non-static); however, in ruby how can I declare
the method: "public static method1"? It seem that the default visibility
of a method is public in ruby, am i correct?
One morething is that java program starts from "public static main()".
What is the entry point to ruby program?
Thanks in advance

···

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Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

2

I've done java for a few years and ruby is pretty new to me. In java, a
method has visibility(private, protected, public) and

Actually there are four of them: you have to add "package" visibility to the list. :slight_smile:

accessibility(static, non-static); however, in ruby how can I declare
the method: "public static method1"? It seem that the default visibility
of a method is public in ruby, am i correct?

Yes. Strictly speaking there are no static methods in Ruby. But it has the concept of singleton methods that are defined for a single instance only. And since classes are just ordinary objects you can define instance methods of class objects and achieve basically the same as with Java's static methods:

class Foo
   def self.a_class_method
     # ...
   end

   def an_instance_method
     self.class.a_class_method
     self.another_class_method
   end
end

def Foo.another_class_method
   # ...
end

One morething is that java program starts from "public static main()".
What is the entry point to ruby program?

The situation is a bit different because Ruby is interpreted. If you want, you can view the root script you invoke as the body of main, i.e., code is executed top down. However, part of this execution are class, method and constant definitions. Invocation arguments are accessible via ARGV (and also ARGF which is a special shortcut which will read from all files in ARGV). So, strictly speaking there is no equivalent of Java's and C's "main" but the functionality is there.

Kind regards

  robert

···

On 04.02.2007 22:49, Thai Le wrote:

3

Robert Klemme:

class Foo
   def self.a_class_method
     # ...
   end

   def an_instance_method
     self.class.a_class_method
     self.another_class_method

       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

   end
end

def Foo.another_class_method
   # ...
end

It seems that you did not write what you meant in the marked line.

Kalman

4

Robert Klemme wrote:

Yes. Strictly speaking there are no static methods in Ruby. But it has
the concept of singleton methods that are defined for a single instance
only. And since classes are just ordinary objects you can define
instance methods of class objects and achieve basically the same as with
Java's static methods:

class Foo
   def self.a_class_method
     # ...
   end

   def an_instance_method
     self.class.a_class_method
     self.another_class_method
   end
end

So if i have a class method, I can invoke that method from anywhere by
using class name like: Foo.a_class_method() without declaring public for
that method?

···

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Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/\.

5

Correct. There is a "class." missing.

  robert

···

On 05.02.2007 11:58, Kalman Noel wrote:

Robert Klemme:

class Foo
   def self.a_class_method
     # ...
   end

   def an_instance_method
     self.class.a_class_method
     self.another_class_method

       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

   end
end

def Foo.another_class_method
   # ...
end

It seems that you did not write what you meant in the marked line.

6

Yes. You can use either of:

Class::method
or
Class.method

···

On 6 feb, 16:22, Thai Le <lnthai2...@yahoo.com> wrote:

So if i have a class method, I can invoke that method from anywhere by
using class name like: Foo.a_class_method() without declaring public for
that method?