At 12:11 PM 5/31/01 +0900, Hal E. Fulton wrote:
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Albert Wagner <alwagner / tcac.net>
> > I have totally confused myself about the relationship between require and
> > include. What is included must be already loaded by require.  So why
>include
> > at all?  How do you know what needs to be included?
>
>"require" is similar to the C include, which may cause newbie confusion.
>(One notable difference is that locals inside the required file "evaporate"
>when the require is done.)
>
>The Ruby include is nothing like the C include.
>
>The include statement "mixes in" a module into a class. It's a limited form
>of multiple inheritance. An included module literally bestows an "is-a"
>relationship on the thing including it.

or in case the include is at the top level of the script, it becomes 
superficially akin to the C++ "using namespace"

Bye,
         Luigi