Ruby and Python

[Conrad Schneiker]

Hi,

Just van Rossum wrote:

> Lyle Johnson wrote:
> ...
> One odd thing I came across: while in Ruby apparently everything is an
> instance (no difference between types and classes) I read somewhere that
> functions and methods are _not_ first class citizens.

I think this notion originally spread from an on-line Ruby article last
spring. Since the above comment seemed somewhat contrary to what I had
subsequently read elsewhere (IIRC), I asked Ruby's creator (aka Matz) about
this. His reply (in
http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/6475 and on
comp.lang.ruby earlier today) was:

# |Is this (literally) correct, or is this correct subject to some important
# |but unstated qualifications? And if so, was there a good (for some
# |purposes) trade-off involved?
#
# It used to be correct.
# Methods became first class citizens on Mar. 3 1998.
#
# In Ruby, unlike Python, method invocation does not generate method
# object internally.
#
#        matz.

Conrad