. vs :: (dot vs. double-colon) for calling a method [duplicate]

It’s the scope resolution operator.

An example from Wikipedia:

module Example
  Version = 1.0

  class << self # We are accessing the module's singleton class
    def hello(who = "world")
       "Hello #{who}"
    end
  end
end #/Example

Example::hello # => "Hello world"
Example.hello "hacker" # => "Hello hacker"

Example::Version # => 1.0
Example.Version # NoMethodError

# This illustrates the difference between the message (.) operator and the scope
# operator in Ruby (::).
# We can use both ::hello and .hello, because hello is a part of Example's scope
# and because Example responds to the message hello.
#
# We can't do the same with ::Version and .Version, because Version is within the
# scope of Example, but Example can't respond to the message Version, since there
# is no method to respond with.