indeed, main is a method of class Thread
check it with ri
ri main
gives you
Thread.main
which returns the main thread for the process.


self is the current object, a synonym if you will.
Defined as the receiver object of the current method.



On Apr 16, 2007, at 8:57 AM, Chad Perrin wrote:

> I was surprised, while reading Satish Talim's ruby tutorial, to  
> discover
> that main is actually a method -- at least, it is according to the  
> Open
> Classes section of the tutorial:
>
>   http://rubylearning.com/satishtalim/ruby_open_classes.html
>
> To quote:
>
>   Please note that self.class refers to Object and self refers to  
> method
>   main. Therefore while running this program you are executing the  
> main
>   method of object Object.
>
> Is that correct?  I would have thought main was an instance of Object,
> and thus was an object itself, not a method of class Object.  Using
> Object.methods within irb doesn't list a main method, so I'm  
> skeptical.
>
> -- 
> CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
> Brian K. Reid: "In computer science, we stand on each other's feet."
>