[ruby-core:18173] Re: New array methods cycle, choice, shuffle (plus bug in cycle)

On 05/08/2008, Brian Candler <[e-mail]> wrote:
> > Seriously though... Array.first is a noun.
>
>  Really? I read it as an adjective: "[the] first [element of the Array]"
>
>  I can think of a few cases where it's used as a noun:
>
>   "I got a first" [class degree]
>
>   "I shifted from first to second" [gear]
>
>  Although if there is any agreement in this thread, it will certainly be a
>  first :-)
>
>  Regards,
>
>  Brian.
>
>  P.S. FWIW, I feel that extra trivial methods to Array bloat the API, and
>  just make it harder to find the (important core) method you need when
>  searching the documentation.
>
>  If this continues, in the end it may become attractive to look away from
>  Ruby to other, simpler, leaner languages.
>
>  There were a number of substantive additions which were made from 1.6 to
>  1.8, such as StringIO. But for me, a method which just does
>  Array#sort_by{rand} doesn't fall into this class - it seems to be
>  change for change's sake.

IIRC there was a medium-length thread about shuffling arrays which
required a few stabs at implementation until it was quite right. So
yes, this is useful even if it is two lines of ruby code that could
just as well be placed into docs or somewhere.

Thanks

Michal