Hello all... Hoping someone can shed some light on something. The FAQ talks about "class instance variables" which are members of the class object which is an instance of class Class. These are not visible within instance methods. 1. How can these be accessed except in the strange realm that is inside the class and between the method definitions? 2. Why do these exist? Are they really useful? 3. For variables, we have an "instance," a "class," and a "class instance." For methods, we have only "instance" and "class." Is there conceivably such a thing as a "class instance method"? Do we know it in Ruby by another name, or is it simply not allowed, or is the idea simply not meaningful? This sort of thing confuses me a lot. :) Sorry... Thanks very much, Hal -- Hal Fulton Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.