By general , we mean that we should be able to change characteristics of the pattern like color, width, size, etc. A method that returns a red patch is not a good idea. Instead, we should be using local variables . The first is a method invocation , the second is referencing a local variable . If we define methods, even if they don't have parameters, we must put empty parenthesis after the method name to use the method.
Variables are just names for things and therefore are never used with parenthesis.