All that the docs have to say about it is that it "lets the Ethereum network know we're not intending to persist any changes." So I get that it's used when not conducting a transaction.
So, I decided to test this:
truffle(development)> gc.then(function(instance){return instance.returnGreeting.call()})
'Hello, Joe'
truffle(development)> gc.then(function(instance){return instance.changeGreeting.call('threes a charm')})
[]
I thought it needed gas in the latter, so I tried but respectively got
truffle(development)> gc.then(function(instance){return instance.call.gas(10000)(bytes4(sha3("changeGreeting(string)")),'threes a charm')})
TypeError: Cannot read property 'gas' of undefined
But then I noticed that the following methods returned the same value, with no apparent difference.
truffle(development)> gc.then(function(instance){return instance.returnGreeting()})
'testing444'
truffle(development)> gc.then(function(instance){return instance.returnGreeting.call()})
'testing444'
To me, it's as useful as adding the keyword public to functions or fields: It only has semantic value. Where's the utility behind it?
