From: Hal Fulton <hal9000@...>
Date: 2004-09-21T02:02:46+09:00
Subject: Re: methods with and without !

Jani Monoses wrote:
> maybe it was my bad wording ;) I know that ! versions modify in place 
> (scheme heritage?)
> I was asking which methods should have a ! variant along the regular one.
> We have sub and sub!, strip and strip! but no String#just! only String#just
> Does in-place imply then that  no memory allocation will be done and the 
> result must fit in the calling object?

Most but not all bang methods modify the receiver in-place. But that is
not the "meaning" of the bang.

The implication of the bang is that the method is more dangerous or more of
a special case. The exit! method, for example, exits without running the
exit handlers.


Hal