[Fellshard]

Not exactly.

What you see as the Class type in Java, at least, is simply a representation of a class. It can tell you about a class, but it doesn't represent an actual thing you can manipulate, change, or use. I can't add a method to that class, or add a field, or manipulate its instances beyond basic method lookup and dispatch.

In something like Ruby or Smalltalk, a Class is an object. It can be changed live, altered, adapted, cloned, or otherwise used just like another object; and the application will change its behavior accordingly, right there on the spot.

I'd recommend reading up on prototype inheritance, as that is the model generally used in the latter languages.

[chrisseaton]

You’re telling me that class objects in Java are immutable while they’re mutable in Ruby. That’s orthogonal to whether they’re objects.

> I'd recommend reading up on prototype inheritance

Thanks but I’ve already literally got my PhD in metaprogramming in Ruby and object model implementation in Java. Ruby doesn’t use anything like prototype inheritance.

[kazagistar]

Its more then that... It's not even inmutable, not really. There are some things, like privaCy of access, that can be mutated by manipulating Java class objects.

That said, maybe the difference here is how often the janky metaprogramming of classes interferes with day to day peogramming; a java programmer might have never seen this stuff, moreso then a ruby one?

[Fellshard]

Yeah, the correction re: prototype inheritance is a good one.

That said, there is a qualitative difference in what we call 'classes' in those two environments, which is part of why I think there's confusion. Class in Java is a fairly different concept than a Class in Smalltalk, Ruby, or JS.