[ruby-core:98076] [Ruby master Feature#16818] Rename `Range#%` to `Range#/`

Issue #16818 has been updated by inopinatus (Joshua GOODALL).


> x / y reads "divide x by y", not "divide x into y parts"

I'm not sure I understand the difference, but nevertheless I agree with Eragon's intuition.

To me, a range is not a matrix, not a sequence either.  I think of ranges as intervals, so their division seems intuitively identical to cutting a line into parts.

I imagine an interval where the objects at each end are complex numbers. This immediately describes a line on the Euclidean plane.

Division is therefore cutting that line into parts, and the modulo operator the inverse i.e. the act of traversing that interval in fixed steps.


----------------------------------------
Feature #16818: Rename `Range#%` to `Range#/`
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/16818#change-85302

* Author: sawa (Tsuyoshi Sawada)
* Status: Open
* Priority: Normal
----------------------------------------
`Range#%` was introduced as an alias of `Range#step` by 14697, but it is counter-intuitive and confusing.

Iteration in the following:

```ruby
((5..14) % 3).each{|i| p i}
#>> 5
#>> 8
#>> 11
#>> 14
```

is not based on `x % y` in any sense. In fact, actually applying `% 3` to the selected elements returns a unique value `2`, and it is not obvious how this is related to the iteration.

```ruby
[5, 8, 11, 14].map{|i| i % 3}
# => [2, 2, 2, 2]
```

Rather, the concept seems to be based on `/`. Applying `/ 3` to the relevant elements returns a sequence `1, 2, 3, 4`.

```ruby
[5, 8, 11, 14].map{|i| i / 3}
# => [1, 2, 3, 4]
```

Hence, `(5..14).step(3)` can be interpreted like this: Iterate over the [equivalence class](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivalence_class) (quotient set) of range `5..14` yielded by `/ 3`.

Notice that the number of elements in `[5, 8, 11, 14]` is 4, which is `(14 - 5 + 1) / 3.0).ceil`, but is not related to `%`.

So I propose that the alias of `Range#step` should be `Range#/`, and `Range#%` should be deprecated as soon as possible before its use accumulates:

```ruby
((5..14) / 3).each{|i| p i}
#>> 5
#>> 8
#>> 11
#>> 14
```

---

P.S.

And if `Range#%` were to be introduced at all, I would rather expect it to behave like the following:

```ruby
((5..14) % 3).each{|i| p i}
#>> 5
#>> 6
#>> 7
```

which is why I claimed above that the current `Range#%` is confusing.



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