Vincent Fourmond wrote: > No: is_a? also returns true when the @my_obj is an instance of a > subclass of Klass. > > I realize that, but that's beyond the scope of the issue I'm having. That's why my original post explicitly said to ignore the superclass and module stuff it does (twice). > If you do > > ri is_a? > > on command-line, you'll get immediate answer. > > Nope, all I get is the exact same API stuff I've already looked at before asking, and quoted in my original post. To clarify, I'm interested in *how*, not *if*, is_a? determines whether @my_obj.is_a?(Klass) with no concern for superclasses or modules. I'm fairly confident it's going to take somebody familiar with Ruby's source code, not just the API, to answer this one.