[ruby-core:18186] Re: New array methods cycle, choice, shuffle (plus bug in cycle)

Florian Frank wrote:
> Yukihiro Matsumoto wrote:
>> Here are choices:
>>
>> * Array#rand (or random, or random_element): pick one random element
>>   from an array.  some might confuse the method to behave like
>>   #shuffle though.
>>   
> Because nobody has mentioned this yet: I know, that rails defines a 
> method with that name in Array, but I think it is a bad idea. It breaks 
> existing and future code, that expects Array#rand to be Kernel#rand and 
> have the same signature and semantics of it, while being in context of  
> an Array instance. It makes it much more difficult to get any random 
> number out of ruby in this context, even if you are aware of Array#rand.

Kernel#rand is not callable as a method:

ruby -e "[1,2,3].rand"
-e:1: private method `rand' called for [1, 2, 3]:Array (NoMethodError)

So this argument would only affect methods calling rand from within 
instance methods on Array or subclasses of it. I think the danger of 
overwriting Kernel#rand in a way that would break user code is pretty low.

- Charlie