
Understanding the Ruby object model - skilldrick
http://skilldrick.co.uk/2011/08/understanding-the-ruby-object-model/
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sleight42
I'm sorry to be critical but this article is a dangerously incomplete
treatment.

For instance, methods only exist on classes. And there's no mention of the
singleton class whatsoever.

For a more accurate lesson, watch Dave Thomas, author of the "Pickaxe"
Programming Ruby book, present on the Ruby Object Model: [http://scotland-on-
rails.s3.amazonaws.com/2A04_DaveThomas-SO...](http://scotland-on-
rails.s3.amazonaws.com/2A04_DaveThomas-SOR.mp4)

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skilldrick
> Note that this is a basic explanation, and glosses over higher-level
> concepts like the eigenclass/metaclass (I’ll leave that for a later post).

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blaix
Glossing over those things misses the entire point. Not worth posting without
it. The videos mentioned in the parent comment get it so right. Highly
recommended.

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sotu
I've just started with Ruby and Rails using a book called Ruby on Rails
tutorial 3.. this article didn't provide anything that I found useful. It
reminded me of a lecture on Java I heard about in Computer Science 101 day 2.

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jcoder
Utility is relative to curiosity. A butcher _might_ be interested in animal
husbandry, but maybe they just want to cut steak. To a Rails dev, this is all
"what happens to the cow before it's steak" stuff.

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asdfaoeu
Sounds like a database admin learning ruby. No idea why anyone wants to think
of classes as anything more than fancy structs with allocation.

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rohitarondekar
It's this kind of thinking that leads to "Ruby is all magic!". You have to
understand the object model to get maximum benefit from Ruby. To be fair you
need to understand the object model of any OO language to get a deeper
understanding of the language.

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atomicdog
Is Ruby still considered a "fad" or is it actually gaining weight as a serious
development platform? I'm seeing more and more articles about it on HN these
days.

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atomicdog
I guess the fact that people have just downvoted rather than explaining
confirms it's still a fad.

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skilldrick
It's a bit like saying "I see a lot of women have jobs these days - does that
mean that feminism is more than just a fad?" You're not going to get any
helpful responses if you ask something inflammatory (and I think it shows
maturity that no-one's flamed you).

Anyway, what would you gain from asking a bunch of Ruby developers whether
Ruby is "just a fad"? This is hardly the best venue for that question.

Incidentally, I didn't downvote you, just thought I'd try to explain why
nobody responded to you.

