From: "alexeymuranov (Alexey Muranov)" <redmine@...>
Date: 2013-01-24T20:36:41+09:00
Subject: [ruby-core:51619] [ruby-trunk - Feature #7738][Open] Deprecate Set#+ as an alias of Set#|, use it for symmetric difference.  Introduce Hash#| for Hash#reverse_merge in Rails.


Issue #7738 has been reported by alexeymuranov (Alexey Muranov).

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Feature #7738: Deprecate Set#+ as an alias of Set#|, use it for symmetric difference.  Introduce Hash#| for Hash#reverse_merge in Rails.
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/7738

Author: alexeymuranov (Alexey Muranov)
Status: Open
Priority: Normal
Assignee: 
Category: 
Target version: Next Major


=begin
I am almost sure this will be rejected, but i want to try anyway.  My goal is to propose a more efficient and consistent use of binary operator symbols for some classes, in this case for (({Set})) and (({Hash})).

I propose to deprecate (({Set#+})) as an alias of (({Set#|})), and use (({Set#+})) later for the ((*symmetric difference*)) of sets.  I think that operator symbols like (({+})) and (({|})) are too precious to alias one another.

Currently (({Set#+})) is probably the only use of (({#+})) for an operation which is not ((*injective*)) in each of the arguments: for sets (({a})), (({b})), (({c})), the equality

  a + b == a + c

does not currently imply

  b == c

The natural binary operation on sets that is injective in each argument is the ((*symmetric difference*)), it corresponds to the bitwise XOR.  I have also noticed that the "(({+}))" for sets is used in "Lectures on ergodic theory " by P. Halmos to denote the symmetric difference.

I also suggest for to define (({Hash#|})) as Hash#reverse_merge in Rails, in my opinion this would correspond nicely to (({Set#|})).
=end



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