Why "::", not "."

Dobai-Pataky_BSSSSl · October 26, 2010, 10:47am

Why does the method of modules use a dot, and the constants a double
colon?
e.g.
Math::PI and Math.cos

graycardinal · October 26, 2010, 11:25am

On Oct 26, 2010, at 01:48 , Oleg I. wrote:

Why does the method of modules use a dot, and the constants a double
colon?
e.g.
Math::PI and Math.cos

For the same reason why inner-classes/modules use double colon, because
they’re constants and that’s how you look up via constant namespace.

Math::PI and ActiveRecord::Base are the same type of lookup… it is
just that Base is a module and PI is a float.

You can also use double-colon for invocation:

% ruby -e ‘p Math::exp(1)’
2.71828182845905

but that is frowned upon as non-idiomatic ruby.

graycardinal · October 26, 2010, 5:11pm

On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 5:24 AM, Ryan D. [email protected]
wrote:

You can also use double-colon for invocation:

% ruby -e ‘p Math::exp(1)’
2.71828182845905

but that is frowned upon as non-idiomatic ruby.

Not so much non-idiomatic as archaic.

Kind of like using thee and thou, or goeth (as in “Pride goeth before
the fall”) in modern English.

–
Rick DeNatale