From: duerst@... Date: 2015-03-03T07:58:46+00:00 Subject: [ruby-core:68391] [Ruby trunk - Bug #10924] String#b Issue #10924 has been updated by Martin D��rst. Thomas Sawyer wrote: > Benoit Daloze wrote: > > Note #b is more #binary than #ascii. > > That at least make a little more sense out of the name #b, but that needs some explanation since every string is actually binary underneath regardless of encoding. (Note the word "binary" is not mentioned at all in the docs.) irb(main):001:0> Encoding::BINARY => # Encoding::BINARY is an alias for Encoding::ASCII-8BIT. Because pure ASCII works well with most other encodings anyway, String#b is mostly used when the binary value (byte for byte rather than character for character) of a string is required. ---------------------------------------- Bug #10924: String#b https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/10924#change-51740 * 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).) -- https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/