[chrisseaton]

I think what you mean is that classes are referenced by a separate namespace in Java and aren’t in Ruby.

That’s completely orthogonal to whether they’re objects or not.

You can keep fiction and non-fiction in separate bookshelves if you want but when you get either off the shelf it’s still a book.

[repsilat]

I guess I'm not sure what "object" means in Java, then.

In languages I'm used to, an object is a type of value, and values are things that you can store in (or refer to with) variables.

The only vaguely object-like feature of Java classes I can think of is that you can look up (static) methods/attributes on them with a dot.

Or is there more? You can't call `String.toString()`, so `String` isn't an instance of something that inherits from `Object`. I'm at a bit of a loss here... There obviously exist "class objects", but they're not normally what people refer to when they talk about classes. I'd say Java classes are almost purely lexical constructs (though I could be wrong there -- again, I don't know much about Java...)

[chrisseaton]

> In languages I'm used to, an object is a type of value, and values are things that you can store in (or refer to with) variables.

Class theStringClass = String.class;

Class[] myArrayOfClasses = new Class[1];

myArrayOfClasses[0] = theStringClass;

callSomeOtherMethod(theStringClass);

> You can't call `String.toString()`

String.class.toString() => "class java.lang.String"

theStringClass.toString() => "class java.lang.String"

myArrayOfClasses[0].toString() => "class java.lang.String"

somethingThatReturnsAClass().toString() => "class java.lang.String"

> `String` isn't an instance of something that inherits from `Object`

Class theObjectClass = Object.class;

theObjectClass.isAssignableFrom(theStringClass) => true

> I'd say Java classes are almost purely lexical constructs

They aren't - here's the source code for the Class class.

https://github.com/Project-Skara/jdk/blob/c2105ced865fba11fb...

Here's the source code for the toString method we were calling

https://github.com/Project-Skara/jdk/blob/c2105ced865fba11fb...