From: Gavin Kistner <gavin@...>
Date: 2004-07-14T12:16:29+09:00
Subject: Re: String.split

On Jul 13, 2004, at 5:41 PM, Lloyd Zusman wrote:
> This convention was almost certainly adopted deliberately, in order to
> be consistent with some of the semantics of Perl's split() function.
> Although it may seem counter-intuitive to people without prior Perl
> experience, it's a very familiar construct for those who have been
> working in Perl for a long time.
>
> Just think of split(" ") as a special case which performs a very useful
> function.

Ick.

Not at your summary, Lloyd, but at this situation. This is...stupid.
I don't know what else to call it.

It's a non-sensical idiom, sure to bite more than a few people. It's 
like Ruby implemented the behavior of a bug that Perl people have 
gotten used to relying on.

What possible benefit is there to typing split(" ") vs. split(/\s/)? 
One saved character (but two shift key presses!)?

It is counter-intuitive to people without prior Perl experience. Now 
that Ruby is taking off in its own right, does Ruby need to continue 
supporting gross global $ vars, this, and other ugly Perl-isms just to 
try and make Ruby feel more like Perl?

--
(-, /\ \/ / /\/