From: transfire@...
Date: 2015-03-02T23:57:44+00:00
Subject: [ruby-core:68386] [Ruby trunk - Bug #10924] String#b

Issue #10924 has been updated by Thomas Sawyer.


Robert A. Heiler wrote:
> I think that, the name aside, this would be a wonderful example for different
> namespaces and restoring to the old default afterwards.
> 
> That way, you could undefine String#b for the purpose of only your gem alone here
> but leave it untouched otherwise.
> 
> Just like your code would be in its own little namespace whereas for everywhere
> else outside, String#b works fine as it would be.

Refinements scoped at the gem level? I think I argued in favor of that once.

I don't so much mind refinements even at the file level, but I think the special notation made them all but useless. I think refinements need to be something that is imposed by the user and the underlying code itself is unchanged. In other words, give me a file that has a core-extension defined in it. If I say:

~~~
require 'core-ext.rb'
~~~

Then the core extension is added globally, but if say:

~~~
refine `core-ext.rb`
~~~

Then it is the same but only apples locally. The `core-ext.rb` file itself is the same in either case.




----------------------------------------
Bug #10924: String#b
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/10924#change-51735

* Author: Thomas Sawyer
* Status: Open
* Priority: Normal
* Assignee: 
* ruby -v: 2.1.0
* Backport: 2.0.0: UNKNOWN, 2.1: UNKNOWN, 2.2: UNKNOWN
----------------------------------------
Well, I just learned about the String#b [method](http://ruby-doc.org/core-2.1.0/String.html#methodi-b) today. And of course it breaks the [Radix](https://github.com/rubyworks/radix) gem :-(  Honestly, back when I create Radix in 2009 I could not have imagined a safer bet than `#b` for an extension if I tried. And yet sure enough, Ruby makes `String#b` an official method for converting to ASCII 8-bit. Is it really such a popular method to get such a short name? I mean `String#ascii` wouldn't have been a better choice? To go along with `#ascii_only`?

Okay, so much for my mini-rant. So bottom line, can I ask that this method not be called `#b`? Even putting the conflict with Radix aside, I think it's a pretty bad name for a standard Ruby method. Just read it: "#b". Do you have any idea what that does without looking it up in the documentation? Nope, no way. 

(P.S. Bug or feature, not sure what to label it. Left it a bug b/c it did [break people's code](https://github.com/rubyworks/radix/issues/10).)



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