From: "gcao (Guoliang Cao)" Date: 2012-03-31T23:53:27+09:00 Subject: [ruby-core:44003] [ruby-trunk - Feature #6222] Use ++ to connect statements Issue #6222 has been updated by gcao (Guoliang Cao). Even though using 'also' means adding a new keyword and breaks compatibility, practically no one uses it as method name or variable name. I searched my whole ruby lib directory, it never appeared in code. Another candidate is \\. It doesn't break compatibility and matches the use of \ in current syntax. Since we use \ to concatenate parts to a statement, \\ can be used to concatenate statements to a statement group, assuming (a; b) is called a statement group. E.g. render \\ return if condition ---------------------------------------- Feature #6222: Use ++ to connect statements https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/6222#change-25533 Author: gcao (Guoliang Cao) Status: Rejected Priority: Normal Assignee: matz (Yukihiro Matsumoto) Category: core Target version: I propose to use ++ to connect two or multiple statements, e.g. do_this ++ do_that ++ do_something It is equivalent to (do_this; do_that; do_something) but more readable. It can be used to replace below idiom do_something and return if condition with do_something ++ return if condition The current way is very error prone because do_something might return false/nil in some cases and cause problems. And new Ruby programmers might not understand the meaning behind this idiom and mimic it blindly. I noticed someone proposed 'then' for same purpose (See http://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/6201) but is postponed to 3.0 because it is already a keyword. I like 'then' too but if it is not acceptable due to backward compatibility issue, then '++' is a good alternative. -- http://bugs.ruby-lang.org/