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For 2023 (and 2024 ...) - we are now fully retired from IT training.
We have made many, many friends over 25 years of teaching about Python, Tcl, Perl, PHP, Lua, Java, C and C++ - and MySQL, Linux and Solaris/SunOS too. Our training notes are now very much out of date, but due to upward compatability most of our examples remain operational and even relevant ad you are welcome to make us if them "as seen" and at your own risk.

Lisa and I (Graham) now live in what was our training centre in Melksham - happy to meet with former delegates here - but do check ahead before coming round. We are far from inactive - rather, enjoying the times that we are retired but still healthy enough in mind and body to be active!

I am also active in many other area and still look after a lot of web sites - you can find an index ((here))
Private, Protected, Public in Ruby. What about interfaces and abstract classes in Ruby?

There's no requirement for you to use the words "public", "private" and "protected" in Ruby - methods within classes that you write default to being public anyway. But you may wish to protect certain of your methods from being called directly by the users of your classes.

So - what protection do they give?

If you give a private command, then it means that the following method(s) up to the next protected or public command are only callable without an explicit object reference.. So this means that you must be within the class when you call them, and furthermore you must call them on the current object. adding self. in front of a call wouldn't change the meaning, but it would lead to NoMethodError exception.

If you give a protected command, then it means that the following method(s) up to the next private or public command are only accessible when called from within methods in the current class, or from methods within classes which are derived (extended) from that class.

Example - see [here] from last week's Ruby course.

As well as the use of "private" (especially) being rather different in Ruby to other languages, you'll note that Ruby has no concept of an abstract class - it doesn't need one, though there are some online examples if you want to write a class that forces actions on anyone extending it.

You'll also note that Ruby does not offer multiple inheritance, nor interfaces. But it does offer mixins which allow you to pull in additional common code into multiple classes in addition to inheritance. See [here] for an article on that topic, and examples.
(written 2012-06-23, updated 2012-06-30)

 
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
R116 - Ruby - Security Issues.
  [945] Code quality counts - (2006-11-26)
  [2604] Tips for writing a test program (Ruby / Python / Java) - (2010-01-29)

R108 - Ruby - More Classes and Objects
  [184] MTBF of coffee machines - (2005-01-20)
  [656] Think about your design even if you don't use full UML - (2006-03-24)
  [1217] What are factory and singleton classes? - (2007-06-04)
  [1587] Some Ruby programming examples from our course - (2008-03-21)
  [2292] Object Orientation in Ruby - intermediate examples - (2009-07-16)
  [2601] Ruby - is_a? v instance_of? - what is the difference? - (2010-01-27)
  [2603] Ruby objects - a primer - (2010-01-29)
  [2616] Defining a static method - Java, Python and Ruby - (2010-02-01)
  [2620] Direct access to object variable (attributes) in Ruby - (2010-02-02)
  [2623] Object Oriented Ruby - new examples - (2010-02-03)
  [2717] The Multiple Inheritance Conundrum, interfaces and mixins - (2010-04-11)
  [2977] What is a factory method and why use one? - Example in Ruby - (2010-09-30)
  [2980] Ruby - examples of regular expressions, inheritance and polymorphism - (2010-10-02)
  [3142] Private and Public - and things between - (2011-01-22)
  [3154] Changing a class later on - Ruby - (2011-02-02)
  [3158] Ruby training - some fresh examples for string handling applications - (2011-02-05)
  [3260] Ruby - a training example that puts many language elements together to demonstrate the whole - (2011-04-23)
  [3760] Why you should use objects even for short data manipulation programs in Ruby - (2012-06-10)
  [3782] Standard methods available on all objects in Ruby - (2012-06-23)
  [4366] Changing what operators do on objects - a comparison across different programming languages - (2014-12-26)
  [4504] Where does Ruby load modules from, and how to load from current directory - (2015-06-03)
  [4550] Build up classes into applications sharing data types in Ruby - (2015-10-23)
  [4551] Testing your new class - first steps with cucumber - (2015-10-23)


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Ruby of Rails - cleanly displaying model data in the view
Adding validation to form entries and sticky fields - Ruby on Rails
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Multiple views in a single appication - sharing common parts of the template - Ruby on Rails
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This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at http://www.wellho.net/horse/ - the diary and writings of Graham Ellis. Every attempt was made to provide current information at the time the page was written, but things do move forward in our business - new software releases, price changes, new techniques. Please check back via our main site for current courses, prices, versions, etc - any mention of a price in "The Horse's Mouth" cannot be taken as an offer to supply at that price.

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