Ruby style of accessing of elements of modules and classes

Question

module Hints
    module Designer
        def self.message
            "Hello, World!"
        end
    end
end

is there any way to use the following code to access the message method?

p Hints.Designer.message

Instead of

p Hints::Designer.message

Answer 1

You can use dot to access the message method, but you can't use it to access Designer module, because Designer it is not a method (but a constant). Dot is for invoking methods only.

Answer 2

The period . is only meant for accessing methods.

The double colon :: is used to indicate namespaces.

Both modules and classes can be nested in each other. This creates a namespace for the nested class. (Technically, Module is an instance of Class.) Thus, the following is correct no matter if Hints or Designer are a class or a module.

Hints::Designer.message

You can try yourself by opening irb on the command line. Hints.Designer.message says NoMethodError: undefined method 'Designer' for Hints:Module.

Update (as I am not allowed to comment...):

While many things in Ruby can be overwritten ("monkey patched"), basic operators cannot. :: is a basic language feature that is and should not be customizable (in order to prevent a big mess ;)).