From: "knu (Akinori MUSHA)" <knu@...>
Date: 2012-11-27T20:14:31+09:00
Subject: [ruby-core:50219] [ruby-trunk - Feature #6670] str.chars.last should be possible


Issue #6670 has been updated by knu (Akinori MUSHA).


It may be an idea to simply obsolete IO#{lines,chars,codepoints,bytes} for now.

First of all, line wise operation is known to be popular and we've already got #readlines since a long time ago.
So, there is no need for a new IO#lines that returns an array unlike String.

For chars, codepoints and bytes, there is no known need for turning a whole file or stream into an on-memory array because we haven't offered such methods to date.
That may be because character or byte wise operation on a stream is typically done using a seek pointer as it reads lazily.
If this should be the case, we don't have an urge need for a new IO#chars, #codepoints or #bytes.
However, we, including matz, confirmed in this issue that a method that does not return an array having a name in the plural form is not intuitive because most Enumerator method have a name consisting of each_ + singular noun, and lines etc. are breaking that convention.

So, what about simply obsoleting IO#{lines,chars,codepoints,bytes} in the current shape?

We can re-add them later in another shape perhaps after we introduce an indexable enumerator (lazy array) that would satisfy everyone who might take both performance and intuitiveness seriously.
----------------------------------------
Feature #6670: str.chars.last should be possible
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/6670#change-34030

Author: yhara (Yutaka HARA)
Status: Assigned
Priority: Normal
Assignee: yhara (Yutaka HARA)
Category: core
Target version: 2.0.0


=begin
Since str.chars returns an Enumerator, we need explicit to_a for some operations:

  str.chars.to_a.last
  str.chars.to_a[1,3]

But often I forget that and write:

  str.chars.last
  str.chars[1,3]

Besides that, I feel it is hard to explain why to_a is needed here when I'm writing
artilcles for Ruby beginners. 

Simplest way to achieve this is to make String#chars (also #lines, #bytes and #codepoints)
return an Array. Since arrays have most of the methods defined in Enumerator, this will 
not be a big change. For programs like str.chars.next, you can use each_char instead.
=end



-- 
http://bugs.ruby-lang.org/