Top level methods: Why they become private instance methods in Object? Why not public?

2
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What is the reasoning behind making top level methods in Ruby private instance methods of Object? If they were somehow made public how would that change things?

1
rubylanguage-designaccess-specifier
Okay, I just realized that if top level methods were mixed into Object as public methods this would allow you to send any object this message. This would be counter intuitive. Leaving this up in case anyone Googles it with same question. - slindsey3000
It is perfectly acceptable and even considered good style to answer your own question on StackOverflow. You figured it out, you deserve the reputation. Plus, if anyone does google this same question, it won't show up as "unanswered". - Jörg W Mittag
@JörgWMittag: Hopefully it'll become an answer, but slindsey has only 58 rep at the moment, and you need 100 rep to self-answer within 8 hours, according to meta.stackexchange.com/questions/86185/… - Andrew Grimm
@JörgWMittag: He also has to wait 8 hours to post an answer according to meta.stackoverflow.com/privileges/edit-community-wiki - Andrew Grimm
Can you answer your question now? - Andrew Grimm

1 Answers

1
votes

If top level methods were mixed into Object as public methods this would allow you to send any object this message. This would be counter intuitive.