[#32926] Re: smallest non-zero number (and other limits) — Bil Kleb <W.L.Kleb@...>
It looks like it has been a year since I first posed
[#32935] RDoc error(?) with template file — moontoeki@... (Sung Moon)
RDoc error(?) with template file
moontoeki@aol.com (Sung Moon) writes:
[#32948] Ruby + XML Proposal — Bryan Murphy <bryan@...>
The following is a sample application that will be included with the next revision
[#32950] for the FAQ maybe — "Aidan Mark" <ahumphr@...>
I didn't see this in the FAQ but its a frequently asked newbie question.
[#32995] RDoc parsing error — TAKAHASHI Masayoshi <maki@...>
Hello,
[#33003] Variable types — David Corbin <dcorbin@...>
I know I'm new to ruby, but I feel obligated to share my dislike for
[#33034] bash-like command splitting (for regexp wizards) — Massimiliano Mirra <info@...>
I am trying to split a command line containing several commands that
On Feb 3, Massimiliano Mirra said:
[#33039] range and modification — moontoeki@... (Sung Moon)
Two things to think about.
[#33048] Terminology (was: Soap4r/Webrick question) — " JamesBritt" <james@...>
[#33065] http://www.loveruby.net/ with Netscape 4.79 — Stephan K舂per <Stephan.Kaemper@...>
Hi all,
[#33076] Mixins and accessing earlier definitions. — Hugh Sasse Staff Elec Eng <hgs@...>
Having read in the archives that super can be used to go back in the
>>>>> "H" == Hugh Sasse Staff Elec Eng <hgs@dmu.ac.uk> writes:
On Tue, 5 Feb 2002, ts wrote:
>>>>> "H" == Hugh Sasse Staff Elec Eng <hgs@dmu.ac.uk> writes:
[#33093] CVS commit emails — Martin Man <Martin.Man@...>
hi all,
Hi,
On Tue, Feb 05, 2002 at 05:00:43PM +0900, Yukihiro Matsumoto wrote:
[#33094] Ruby bug? IO.close doesn't check for error — Matt Armstrong <matt@...>
It is possible for fclose() to fail (for example, when fclose() needs
[#33096] newbie: Array element conversion — Mark Probert <probertm@...>
On Tue, 5 Feb 2002, Mark Probert wrote:
[#33128] Progress with Ruby/Tk — Peter Hickman <peter@...>
Thanks for all the help and pointers that people have given me, as you
[#33129] Ruby and Swig?? — Markus Jais <mjais@...>
hello
[#33135] some dbi questions (probably postres specific) — fastjack@... (Martin Maciaszek)
I'm playing around with dbi and postgres. After a while two problems remained
[#33174] generating Ruby libs from XML Schemas — Tobias Reif <tobiasreif@...>
Hi,
[#33200] Regexp::Parser ported to Ruby...? — "Jeff 'japhy' Pinyan" <jeffp@...>
I'm writing a Perl module for the parsing and handling of regexes. It's
This would be very interesting and a way to play with RegExp's in Ruby in
[#33238] mkmf, extconf.rb — Hugh Sasse Staff Elec Eng <hgs@...>
Further to my suggestions in Ruby-Talk:31391, about adding methods to
Hi,
On Thu, 7 Feb 2002 nobu.nokada@softhome.net wrote:
[#33242] favicon.ico — Dave Thomas <Dave@...>
On Thu, 7 Feb 2002, I wrote:
Thomas Hurst wrote:
[#33281] MYSql on Windows - help! — Dave Thomas <Dave@...>
[#33286] returning multiple values from a method — ptkwt@...1.aracnet.com (Phil Tomson)
irb(main):001:0> def foo; return 1,2,3; end
[#33292] shuffle (all possible sequences) — Tobias Reif <tobiasreif@...>
Hi,
[#33309] XML::SAX2 critique — msergeant@... (Matt Sergeant)
This isn't exactly a critique of XML::SAX2 per-se, but more of the
[#33321] ruby and vim — fastjack@... (Martin Maciaszek)
To edit my ruby code I rediscovered the good old vim. vim6 even has
[#33324] Class variable bug — "Chr. Rippel" <chr_news@...>
It seems that the following class variable bug feel through the
Hi,
[#33344] Adding rockit power to Rdoc? — Bil Kleb <W.L.Kleb@...>
While researching the feasibility of teaching Rdoc to
[#33356] SMTP and attachments — Steve Tuckner <STUCKNER@...>
Does anyone know how to send an e-mail with attachments using net/smtp?
[#33381] Latest CVS/Win32 build error — "Bob Calco" <robert.calco@...>
Anyone:
[#33382] FXRuby: how to create a static status line? — Jos Backus <josb@...>
I'm trying to create a status line at the bottom of the application window
[#33396] Setting the Ruby — "Aidan Mark" <ahumphr@...>
Around 1994 I was writing a book on Perl. I mentioned this to an old timer.
[#33419] Re: NT Service — "Marty Alchin" <gulopine@...>
>I used FireDaemon some years back and it worked so well that if you
[#33421] iowa segfault — Paul Brannan <paul@...>
I know there used to be a mailing list for iowa, but listbot seems to be
[#33423] Need help with ruby-gimp please — Jim Freeze <jfreeze@...>
Hi:
[#33435] Reg: tiny contest: who's faster? (add_a_gram) — grady@... (Steven Grady)
> My current solution works correctly with various inputs.
grady@xcf.berkeley.edu (Steven Grady) writes:
[#33445] RE: Open3.popen3 in C? — Christophe Broult <cbroult@...>
> -----Original Message-----
[#33470] 'is a quine' is a quine — Thomas Hurst <tom.hurst@...>
In case anyone's bored, how about another of those nice challanges?
[#33499] SourceForge Foundry for Ruby ? — Richard Harlos <quadzero@...>
Hi, folks. I'm interested to know if any of you would support the
[#33500] Ruby Embedded Documentation — William Djaja Tjokroaminata <billtj@...>
Hi,
> Now, I am using Ruby on Linux, and I have downloaded Ruby version
>>>>> "L" == Lyle Johnson <ljohnson@resgen.com> writes:
In message "Re: Ruby Embedded Documentation"
[#33518] Ruby interpreter's stability (hosting companies etc.) — Tobias Reif <tobiasreif@...>
Hi,
[#33535] Class variable madness — stern@... (Alan Stern)
Can someone tell me what's going on here? Or has this already been fixed?
[#33556] ByteCodeRuby 0.1.0 — "triptych" <triptych@...>
The latest version of ByteCodeRuby is now available from the RubyVM project
[#33560] syntax across languages — Pixel <pixel@...>
http://merd.net/pixel/language-study/syntax-across-languages.html
[#33570] array diff — Tobias Reif <tobiasreif@...>
Hi,
[#33607] Ruby browser similar to Smalltalk browsers? — John Clarke <clarkej@...>
Hi,
[#33615] Name resolution in Ruby — stern@... (Alan Stern)
I've been struggling to understand how name resolution is supposed to
[#33617] choice of HTML templating system — Paul Brannan <paul@...>
I am not a web developer, nor do I pretend to be one.
[#33619] make first letter lowercase — sebi@... (sebi)
hello,
sebi wrote:
On Feb 11, Tobias Reif said:
[#33630] Help with i18n and RDoc, please.... — Dave Thomas <Dave@...>
[#33672] rubycentral.com down? — J Anthony <jeremy@...>
pardon me if this is the wrong place to ask, but what's up with
[#33695] Ruby/Tk reference — Nemesis@... (Nemesis)
Hi everyone, I'm searching for a free ruby/tk reference (I've found one
[#33702] eruby + apache and charset — Yuri Leikind <YuriLeikind@...>
Hello all,
[#33711] Ruby Developer's Guide has arrived :-) — David Alan Black <dblack@...>
Hi --
[#33712] Ruby performance on the Language Shootout — ptkwt@...1.aracnet.com (Phil Tomson)
I haven't taken a look at the Great Computer Language Shootout page for
[#33715] Possible bug -- ruby cvs (1.7.2 2002-02-10) interpreter seg fault — Matt Armstrong <matt@...>
If I run this script
[#33731] simple XML parsing (greedy / non-greedy — Ron Jeffries <ronjeffries@...>
Suppose I had this text
[#33743] qualms about respond_to? idiom — David Alan Black <dblack@...>
Hi --
David Alan Black <dblack@candle.superlink.net> writes:
Hi --
Paul Brannan <paul@atdesk.com> writes:
David Alan Black <dblack@candle.superlink.net> writes:
[#33761] (CSV) text file processing... — bobx@... (Bob)
I am looking for an example of (csv)text file processing. What I am
[#33848] "Powered by Ruby" banner — Yuri Leikind <YuriLeikind@...>
Hello Ruby folks,
On Thu, 14 Feb 2002, Yuri Leikind wrote:
A modest submission:
Kent Dahl wrote:
On 2/15/02 5:54 AM, "yet another bill smith" <bigbill.smith@verizon.net>
i just don't understand why it didn't show up! dhtml/javascript, ok, but a
On 2/15/02 7:16 AM, "Jack Dempsey" <dempsejn@georgetown.edu> wrote:
Chris Gehlker wrote:
Thomas Hurst wrote:
In message <3c6e5e01_1@spamkiller.newsgroups.com>,
* Rob Partington (rjp@browser.org) wrote:
In message <20020216140007.GB75585@voi.aagh.net>,
* Rob Partington (rjp@browser.org) wrote:
Thomas Hurst wrote:
In article <3C6CFCCA.5AD5CA67@scnsoft.com>, Yuri Leikind wrote:
On Fri, 15 Feb 2002, Martin Maciaszek wrote:
On 2/15/02 10:59 AM, "Leon Torres" <leon@ugcs.caltech.edu> wrote:
Chris Gehlker wrote:
hello ppl,
[#33851] Ruby and .NET — Patrik Sundberg <ps@...>
I have been reading a bit about .NET for the last couple of days and must say
Hi,
On Thu, Feb 14, 2002 at 10:22:31PM +0900, Stephan J. Schmidt wrote:
On Thu, 2002-02-14 at 14:27, Patrik Sundberg wrote:
Erik B虍fors wrote:
Javier Fontan wrote:
Sean Middleditch wrote:
[#33885] File.open weirdness — "Craig Files" <craig_files@...>
Hi,
[#33899] building ruby — Mark Probert <probertm@...>
[#33915] Keyword arguments (Was: File.open weirdness) — Martin Man <Martin.Man@...>
On Fri, Feb 15, 2002 at 04:59:23AM +0900, Craig Files wrote:
[#33923] SWIG/Ruby woes with g++ 3.0 — Luigi Ballabio <ballabio@...>
> I just found a problem with generated SWIG code and g++ 3.0.3 which
Lyle,
> I don't think that this is fixed yet. (I attempted to email
[#33943] CGI::Session problems — dmcnulty@... (Dan McNulty)
Argh!
[#33996] Ruby threading and GUI toolkits — "Rich Kilmer" <rich@...>
I've encountered a bit of a dilemma. I need to have a GUI application with
[#34013] hash as key in hash — Albert Wagner <alwagner@...>
I don't understand why this doesn't work. Can anyone help?
[#34024] Compiled companion language for Ruby? — Erik Terpstra <erik@...>
Hmmm, seems that my previous post was in a different thread, I'll try
[#34030] LocalJumpError when defining each — Matt Kussow <junk@...>
The following script seems to work with ruby version 1.6.5, but not with 1.6.6.
Hello --
[#34036] The GUI Returns — "Horacio Lopez" <vruz@...>
Hello all,
[#34037] dump/load a class that has C and Ruby data — Joel VanderWerf <vjoel@...>
[#34048] Formatting — David Corbin <dcorbin@...>
In C, people use printf to format data nicely for display. In Java,
[#34053] OOP overhead (Was: tiny contest...) — Albert Wagner <alwagner@...>
I got stuck in a tar baby re: the tiny contest proposed by Tobias. I was
Richard Harlos wrote:
On 2/17/02 3:45 PM, "Sean Russell" <ser@germane-software.com> wrote:
[#34077] Problems with Ruby in C — Joakim Andersson <tyrak@...>
Hi,
[#34099] net/http or webfetcher with pasworded urls — Ron Jeffries <ronjeffries@...>
Hi, some help please ...
[#34107] x =~ /pat/, "return type?" — David Corbin <dcorbin@...>
When I say:
[#34131] alias danger — Joel VanderWerf <vjoel@...>
[#34162] Epic4/Ruby — Thomas Hurst <tom.hurst@...>
Rejoice, for you no longer have to put up with that evil excuse for a
On Tue, Feb 19, 2002 at 01:31:01AM +0900, Thomas Hurst wrote:
Hi,
In article <1014312459.984378.27488.nullmailer@ev.netlab.jp>,
[#34179] expect.rb vs Expect (Tcl)... — Hugh Sasse Staff Elec Eng <hgs@...>
I have had a look at the expect.rb in the 1.6 library.
[#34183] Rinn and Perl CORBA::ORBit — Selander@...
Good evening,
On Tue, Feb 19, 2002 at 04:57:43AM +0900, Selander@thomases.com wrote:
[#34185] Operator overloading and multiple arguments — ptkwt@...1.aracnet.com (Phil Tomson)
I'm trying to overload the '<=' operator in a class in order to use it for
[#34189] FalseClass / TrueClass singleton methods? — Brad Hilton <bhilton@...>
Hello,
"Brad Hilton" <bhilton@vpop.net> wrote in
[#34206] Anonymous class support — David Corbin <dcorbin@...>
I find Java anonymous classes to be very helpful when writing UnitTests,
[#34217] Ruby for web development — beripome@... (Billy)
Hi all,
Hey!
[#34228] RE: Ruby, PickAxe, FreeRIDE mentioned on BYTE magazine — "Curt Hibbs" <curt@...>
Horacio Lopez wrote:
[#34284] advice on dispatch tables — Mark Probert <probertm@...>
[#34294] Java JNI and Ruby — "Rich Kilmer" <rich@...>
I know about the JRuby project, but has anyone looked in to just embedding
[#34304] strings embedded inside strings — Paul Brannan <paul@...>
I've seen this on the ML before, but searching the ruby-talk archives I
[#34315] eRuby and require — beripome@... (Billy)
Hi all,
[#34329] ruby booting? — Chris Moore <kurisu@...>
This is gonna sound crazy but how hard would it be to make ruby boot as
[#34335] patch to allow dump/load to work on DATA objects — Joel VanderWerf <vjoel@...>
[#34350] FAQ for comp.lang.ruby — "Hal E. Fulton" <hal9000@...>
RUBY NEWSGROUP FAQ -- Welcome to comp.lang.ruby! (Revised 2001-2-18)
> Ruby selectively integrates many good ideas taken from Perl,
Hi,
matz@ruby-lang.org (Yukihiro Matsumoto) writes:
[#34361] REBOL vs Ruby — beripome@... (Billy)
Hi all,
Hi,
[#34375] Setting the Ruby continued — <jostein.berntsen@...>
Hi,
Also VERY important:
Hello,
Ok, I can't take part in developing ruby not becouse of the language
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
[#34379] including files in eruby — Martin Maciaszek <mmaciaszek@...>
I'm using eruby on some of my web pages. Now they became big and
[#34405] Now I'm really confused! — Chris Gehlker <gehlker@...>
I'm still struggling with producing RubyStudio. The following example
[#34412] dang it, CGI::Session is broken again — dmcnulty@... (Dan McNulty)
What is wrong with this? I swear this was working yesterday, but now
[#34446] eRuby and erb — moontoeki@... (Sung Moon)
I would like to use either of eRuby or erb for my web design.
[#34457] Help with blocks? — "Pattern-chaser" <patternChaser@...>
I'm trying to learn Ruby; just started. I like what I've understood
[#34467] recursive require — Ron Jeffries <ronjeffries@...>
I'm having a really odd thing happen with two files that mutually
[#34489] IPSocket.getaddress and signals — Joseph McDonald <joe@...>
[#34503] special characters — Tobias Reif <tobiasreif@...>
Hi all,
Urban Hafner wrote:
[#34515] Rubicon Failure — Urban Hafner <ruby-lists@...>
Hey hey,
[#34517] Windows Installer Ruby 166-0 available — Andrew Hunt <andy@...>
[#34554] dispatching and class references — Mark Probert <probertm@...>
On Sat, Feb 23, 2002 at 04:19:19AM +0900, Mark Probert wrote:
[#34566] Ruby's Future — Paulo Schreiner <paulo@...>
Hello, folks, what are the plans for the future of ruby? What new
Speaking of which, I remember and argument I brought up (and some of
Hi,
[#34597] rdoc/xml questions — Dave Thomas <Dave@...>
> From: dave@thomases.com [mailto:dave@thomases.com]On Behalf Of Dave
james@rubyxml.com writes:
james@rubyxml.com wrote:
[#34631] Object/Memory Management — "Sean O'Dell" <sean@...>
I'm new to Ruby and the community here (I've been learning Ruby for a grand
"Sean O'Dell" <sean@celsoft.com> writes:
On 2/23/02 5:15 PM, "Dave Thomas" <Dave@PragmaticProgrammer.com> wrote:
"Sean Middleditch" <elanthis@awesomeplay.com> wrote in message > On Sat,
On Sun, 2002-02-24 at 04:22, Sean O'Dell wrote:
[#34661] Re: Newbie question — "roktas" <roktas@...>
Hi,
Hello --
Hi!
[#34682] duplicate method name — Ron Jeffries <ronjeffries@...>
I just found a case in a test file where i had two tests of the same
Hi Ron.
On Sun, 24 Feb 2002 15:49:49 GMT, Dave Thomas
[#34732] Hash.each block parameters — "Sean O'Dell" <sean@...>
I ran into a problem where I should have called .each_key for a hash, but I
[#34735] TestUnit 0.1.1 — <nathaniel@...>
From the README:
[#34748] Assignment Rules — "Sean O'Dell" <sean@...>
I'm trying to get in my head what the rules about assignment are. So far
[#34750] inconsistence in class complex — juergen.katins@... (Juergen Katins)
While translating the book "Programming Ruby" by Dave Thomas and
[#34753] 9 years with Ruby — matz@... (Yukihiro Matsumoto)
Hi,
[#34762] Directory copy recursively — kwatch@... (kwatch)
Hi,
[#34777] CONFIG['(site|ruby)libdir'] policies? — Massimiliano Mirra <list@...>
On my system (Debian Linux), Config::CONFIG['sitelibdir'] and
Massimiliano Mirra <list@chromatic-harp.com> writes:
[#34778] Re: Windows Installer Ruby 166-0 available — Andrew Hunt <andy@...>
Alexander writes:
[#34780] RCR 65: IO orthogonalization, improved reusability — "Thomas Sdergaard" <tsondergaard@...>
I hope I'm not violating the rubiqette by cross-posting this from
"Thomas Sdergaard" <tsondergaard@speakanet.com> writes:
[#34783] Re: [ANN] TestUnit 0.1.1 — Tobias Reif <tobiasreif@...>
Dave, it would be nice if you could explain what I'm missing.
[#34791] Style Question — Ron Jeffries <ronjeffries@...>
So I'm building this set theory library. The "only" object is supposed
[#34823] Can't get stderr to flush — Chris Gehlker <gehlker@...>
[#34835] Standard preambles and prompting on standard error? — Chris Gehlker <gehlker@...>
I've been testing RubyStudio against the sample programs that come with
[#34857] TestUnit 0.1.3 — <nathaniel@...>
From the README:
[#34896] New OS for Old Mac — Chris Gehlker <gehlker@...>
I have an old Mac 6400 that I want to use as a server. Ruby for the old Mac
[#34905] Rescue Clause — "Sean O'Dell" <sean@...>
Where all can you put rescue clauses? Are these correct:
[#34912] RCR?: parallel to until: as_soon_as — Tobias Reif <tobiasreif@...>
Hi,
Hi --
[#34920] RE: Kernel.system incongurity - Windows98 — "Morris, Chris" <chris.morris@...>
[#34941] rpkg 0.3 pre-release and beta testers — Massimiliano Mirra <list@...>
I've just uploaded rpkg 0.3 to www.allruby.com/rpkg/rpkg-0.3.tar.gz
[#34961] RE: RCR 65: IO orthogonalization, improved reusability — =?Windows-1252?Q?Thomas_S=F8ndergaard?= <tsondergaard@...>
"Thomas Sdergaard" <tsondergaard@speakanet.com> wrote in message
[#34971] RDoc and XML - opinions please — Dave Thomas <Dave@...>
[#34972] OT A Question on work styles — Chris Gehlker <gehlker@...>
As a Mac baby I just had to step through ruby in GDB *from the command line*
Hi,
On Thu, 28 Feb 2002 05:21:24 GMT, Chris Gehlker <gehlker@fastq.com> wrote:
[#34998] Matrix class in Ruby — jasa <jasa@...>
Hi,
[#35007] DRb TupleSpace Example Poofter — edwardhatfield1@... (Edward Hatfield)
Hello All,
[#35008] RDoc with XML — Dave Thomas <Dave@...>
[#35015] Time Comparison — "Sean O'Dell" <sean@...>
I am using the time object to compare times between two files and I'm
Hi
Name resolution in Ruby
I've been struggling to understand how name resolution is supposed to work in Ruby. So far, this has been without looking at the source code, for two reasons: First, the source is rather long and hard to understand. Second, I want to know how Ruby is *intended* to operate, rather than the details of how a specific release actually does operate. My starting point was the book "Programming Ruby" by Hunt and Thomas (an excellent book! -- thanks, Andy and Dave). However, their discussion is framed almost entirely in terms of identifier scopes, which only gives a static view of what is largely a dynamic process. That is, a scope is a static region of a program that can be identified by the parser at compile time, whereas name resolution and lookup occurs later, when the interpreter is executing the compiled code. Here's what I've been able to glean. Hopefully nobody will mind this posting. I could use some feedback -- what I've got is incomplete, and parts of it are almost certainly wrong. I trust that somebody in the newsgroup can help explain things better. There are several different types of identifiers in Ruby: local variables, instance variables, class variables, global variables, constants, and method names. Identifier types are determined by the parser as it compiles a program. (Sometimes there isn't enough information available for the parser to decide which type a particular identifier represents; method names can be confused with local variables and with constants. In these situations the parser relies on various heuristics to guess the type, and it doesn't always guess right.) Each type of name gets resolved in a different way. Global variables are the easiest. There's a single set of values for the global variables, and a name always refers to the corresponding value. Instance variables are nearly as simple. Every object contains a table of instance variable values, and an instance variable name is looked up in the table of the current object (i.e., the value of "self"). You would think that class variables would be equally simple to explain, but they're not. The question of where one gets looked up or stored is all tied in with the matter of meta-classes, and I don't really understand how it's supposed to work. Also, Matz has mentioned (in recent newsgroup postings) that he has had to fix some bugs in the implementation of class variables during the last few weeks, so things are in a state of flux. Maybe somebody can fill in the details here? Local variables operate by way of bindings. A binding is (in principle, anyway -- the implementation details may be different) just a table listing variable names and their values. It corresponds more or less to the data stored in a Binding object, although that also includes the value of the current object and the current block, if there is one. A binding is the dynamic representation of a scope: A new blank one is created and installed as the current binding whenever the flow of control enters a class definition (that is, whenever a "class" statement or a "module" statement is executed). When the flow of control enters a method, a new binding is created and initialized with mappings for the method's parameters. When a block is created it gets its own binding, which is initialized as a copy of (actually, it must be a reference to) the current binding. And when the flow of control leaves a class definition, method, or block, the binding is destroyed and the one previously in force once again becomes the current binding. Local variable names are just looked up in the current binding. When a new local variable is created, it gets entered into the current binding. This explains why local variables created inside a block do not exist once the block exits; the entries for the variables get made in the block's binding and not in the original binding (which gets re-installed as the current one when the block is finished). Method names are resolved in an elaborate way. A method call has the form "r.m(...)", where "r" is the receiver (which defaults to self if it is omitted) and "m" is the method name. The search for m starts in r's class. Each class (or module) contains a table of instance method names, together with pointers to their implementations. The name m is looked up in this table. If it is not found there, and if r is itself a class, then a special case comes into play: m is looked up in r's superclass's metaclass, then the superclass's superclass's metaclass, and so on, all the way up to Object's metaclass. (This is how inheritance of class methods is made to work.) If none of those searches succeeds, or if r is not a class, then the search continues in the table for the superclass of r's class, then that class's superclass, and so on all the way up to the Kernel module. (That's how inheritance is made to work.) [That the order of the lookups works as described can be demonstrated by the following sample code: class Class def m p "Class#m" end end class A end class B < A end B.m # Prints out "Class#m" def A.m p "A.m" end B.m # Prints out "A.m" The first use of m is found in B's class (which is Class). The second use is found in B's superclass's metaclass, so that must precede B's class in the search order.] Finally there are constants. Class objects (and module objects) contain a table listing the constants defined in that class (-- as well as one listing the class variables; in fact these tables might really be the same as the one listing the instance methods for the class, with just the forms of the names to distinguish the types of the entries). Constant names get looked up in these tables much like method names, but with one big difference: The class in which the search starts is not the same. For a qualified constant name, like AClass::CONST or ::CONST, the search starts in AClass or the top-level class (however that gets set; the top-level class is altered during processing of a file by the Kernel#load command if the wrap parameter is set to true). Unadorned constant names (just plain CONST) do not get looked up starting in the current object's class. Instead, the lookup starts at a point we might call the current class, which is not the same thing. The current class is determined statically by the parser, not dynamically during execution. For code outside a class definition, the current class is just the top-level class. For code inside a class definition, the current class is the one being defined. This has two unexpected consequences. If m is a class method for class A, that mentions a constant CONST, the choice of where CONST gets looked up in m will be different depending on how m is defined: class A def A.m ... CONST ... end end and class << A def m ... CONST ... end end and def A.m ... CONST ... end will look up CONST in three different places. Also, if m is an instance method of class A that mentions CONST, and B is a class derived from A that contains its own value for CONST but does not override the definition of m, and b is an instance of B, then the method call "b.m" will end up using A's version of CONST, not B's. The overall effect is that constants behave as though they really do have a static scope. All contributions welcome. Alan Stern