title: Classes of methods in ruby
body: <p>In furthering my study of Ruby, I've noticed that some methods really seem to give power to the language, while others are just syntactic sugar.</p>
  
  <p>Examples of sugar: .split, .strip, i.e. any methods that just make doing a menial task with a data structure easier.</p>
  
  <p>Examples of power methods: call, send, responds_to?, method_missing, etc.</p>
  
  <p>It seems like if you understand those "power methods" you really know the language.</p>
  
  <p>Curious about three things:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Has anyone every made such a distinction, be it in a book/blog post etc?</li>
  <li>Do you personally make such a distinction?</li>
  <li>If you feel what I'm saying is correct, what "power methods" should I know and use better?</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>Thanks (hope this question doesn't get closed!)</p>