Feature #10406: Method starting with a capital is not detected when parentheses and receiver are omitted

• Status: Rejected
• Assignee: matz (Yukihiro Matsumoto)
• Target version: 3.0

[sawa (Tsuyoshi Sawada)]

A method whose name starts with a capital is not detected when parentheses and receiver are omitted.

def Foo; puts "foo" end
Foo # => uninitialized constant Foo

If I disambiguate it as a method, then the method is detected:

Foo() # => foo

This kind of consideration if unnecessary if the method name does not start with a capital.

def foo; puts "foo" end
foo # => foo

So I expect method Foo to be detected without explicit receiver and arguments (unless there is a constant with the same name).

def Foo; puts "foo" end

I first thought this as a bug. If it is not a bug, then I would like to ask this as a feature request.

[nobu (Nobuyoshi Nakada)]

• Tracker changed from Bug to Feature
• Category set to syntax
• Status changed from Open to Assigned
• Assignee set to matz (Yukihiro Matsumoto)
• Target version set to 3.0

It's a ruby's naming rule.

[mame (Yusuke Endoh)]

I believe this is intentional. Otherwise, we would become unable to refer Array, Integer, Float, String, and Hash classes because of Kernel#Array and so on ;-)

--
Yusuke Endoh [e-mail]

[sawa (Tsuyoshi Sawada)]

Yusuke Endoh wrote:

I believe this is intentional. Otherwise, we would become unable to refer Array, Integer, Float, String, and Hash classes because of Kernel#Array and so on ;-)

Just like local variables have precedence over method look up, I expect that constants have precedence over method look up, so I don't think that would be a problem.

[mame (Yusuke Endoh)]

Oops, I see. Sorry for the noise!

--
Yusuke Endoh [e-mail]

[matz (Yukihiro Matsumoto)]

• Status changed from Assigned to Rejected

Unlike local variables, constants are not resolved statically. That's the reason behind this behavior.
If you have further demand, reopen the issue.

Matz.