[ruby-core:18075] Re: New array methods cycle, choice, shuffle (plus bug in cycle)

On Aug 1, 2008, at 4:43 PM, David Flanagan wrote:

> If we agree that there is a use-case for adding #sample to the API,  
> then
> I would also argue again for #sample! which removes the sampled  
> elements from the array.  There is no way to write #sample! based on  
> #sample and I'd imagine that it would be usefule.
>
> If the method doesn't take an argument and always returns a single  
> element, then I'd prefer #rand or #random_element (or just removing  
> the method) to #choose or #sample.

I kinda worry that all this is leading to a bigger API than we need.  
If I wanted to pick random elements from an array, I'd just do

source = original.shuffle

and then pop, unshift, or take(n). Do we really need a separate API  
for this?



Dave