From: gabriele renzi <surrender_it@...1.vip.ukl.yahoo.com>
Date: 2004-07-26T01:57:43+09:00
Subject: Re: [Q] Array.delete

il Mon, 26 Jul 2004 01:26:08 +0900, Johannes Barre <igel@igels.net> ha
scritto::

>Moin!
>
>Sorry for bringing up such an old topic, but I stumbled over the same 
>issue today.
>
>E.-R. Bruecklmeier wrote on 01/14/04:
>
>> Why aren's there two methods: Array.delete and Array.delete! ???
>
>I don't see any reason, why the name of the method is Array.delete 
>instead of Array.delete!, since Array.delete modifies the Array and 
>returns the removed object. Any chance that that is changed, for the 
>sake of the principle of least surprise? :)
>

the reason is that matz thinks delete (and String#concat and many
others) have modification implicit. the bang (!) is to distinguish
dangerous methods from safe ones with the same name. 
I don't really agree but this has been brought up many times, see even
rcrchive for a recent RCR :)