From: Brian Candler <B.Candler@...>
Date: 2008-11-14T17:47:43+09:00
Subject: [ruby-core:19933] Re: {Proc,Method}#parameters (Re: Proposal: Method#get_args)

On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 03:30:44PM +0900, Charles Oliver Nutter wrote:
> The original proposal also asked for literal defaults to be present.

True - but it's not clear if, or how, the literal defaults are used in merb.

Since "=" is not a valid character in a local variable, you could have a
string-based API which accommodates defaults:

  def action(a, b, c=123, d="hello #{c}", *e)

  => ["a", "b", "c=123", "d=\"hello #{c}\"", "e=*"]

But if this information is more expensive to collect and to split out, and
doesn't have a defined purpose, then I think it should be excluded.

I don't think anyone's proposing this is an interface to be used by rdoc or
other tools which need a full parse. In Merb's case, it's so that an
incoming parameters hash of

   {:a => "foo", :b => "bar", :x => "ignoreme"}

can be passed to the action() method in the correct positions. It's a
poor-man's named arguments.