From: Joel VanderWerf <vjoel@...>
Date: 2004-06-04T04:21:23+09:00
Subject: Re: entries /  to_a

Johan Holmberg wrote:
> Hi !
> 
> The Enumerable module defines the two methods "entries" and "to_a"
> as synonyms for the same thing. Some classes that mix-in Enumerable
> re-implement "to_a" but *not* "entries". Sometimes this is ok, but
> in the case of the Array class I think this is a bad thing.

It might be valuable to have both functionalities available. If #entries 
consistently means "Return a new array containing the items in _enum_.", 
then you can always be sure you're getting a copy. There may be code 
somewhere that relies on this behavior.

Unfortunately, the ri docs say "Returns an array containing the items in 
_enum_.", which doesn't quite settle the ambiguity. It doesn't help that 
Enumerable#to_a and Enumerable#entries share the same ri page without 
mentioning that classes that mix in Enumerable can treat them differently.