From: daz <dooby@...10.karoo.co.uk>
Date: 2005-07-06T20:10:08+09:00
Subject: Re: Object#=~


Yukihiro Matsumoto wrote:


> Hi,
>
> Ryan Davis writes:
>
> |Since Rexexp#=~ and String#=~ return nil if they fail to match,
> |shouldn't Object#=~ return nil as well? It returns false currently.
>
> As far as I can say, =~ returns true (non-false) value when it
> matches, and returns false value (nil or false) when it doesn't match.
> Making it return nil is trivial, but I'm not sure yet to change.  I
> will try changing it on HEAD.
>
> matz.
>

Matz,

I expected you to say that this was intentionally provided
as a "third state":

true  - positive pattern match result
nil   - negative pattern match result
false - don't know (no match was done)

respond_to?(:=~) gives true for all objects (unless removed?)
so is unproductive.

But I'm not aware of any usage.  Just a thought.


daz