From: "Ara.T.Howard" <ahoward@...>
Date: 2004-08-06T06:11:27+09:00
Subject: Re: Macros in Ruby

On Fri, 6 Aug 2004, Hal Fulton wrote:

> David A. Black wrote:
>> Hi --
>>
<snip>
>> I admit I'd opt for inconsistency over further punctuation in this
>> case :-) But actually I'm not sure I'd agree that & in arglists is the
>> same usage as & as synonym for lambda.  I've always thought of it as a
>> kind of singular construct, necessary because the whole code-block
>> thing has that singularity.  Also there's this:
>>
>>   pr = lambda {}
>>   some_method &pr
>>
>> which would become
>>
>>   pr = &{}
>>   some_method &pr
>>
>> which bugs me in some way involving levels of indirection that I can't
>> quite put my finger on....
>
> I can't put my finger on it either, but I see your point. And that is
> perhaps the best argument against it I've seen.

it's no stranger than this to me

   jib:~ > cat a.rb

   def method &block; m &block; end
   def m &block; block.call; end

   method{ puts 42 }

   jib:~ > ruby a.rb
   42

and feels alot like

   const char *cp = "foobar";
   printf ("%c\n", *cp);

or

   @a = qw(4 2);
   $a = \@a;
   print @$a,"\n";

(just writing that made me remember why i hate perl!)

but i would agree this is the best argument...

-a
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