From: Leo Razoumov <see_signature@127.0.0.1>
Date: 2001-03-10T06:10:02+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:12358] Re: FEATURE REQUEST: 'my' local variables

Arnaud,
I hope you heard about "locality principle" in software construction. This
principle underlines both structural and OO programming.
A programmer should be able to control side effects of any given scope if he
needs to. 

--Leo

>>>>> "AM" == Arnaud Meuret <ameuret@blocks4you.com> writes:

    >> Suddenly your program goes crazy because someone already introduced local
    AM> 'i' in
    >> one of the enclosing scopes might be 200 lines earlier and it holds some
    AM> other
    >> magic number like 12345. Now my innocently looking 'for' loop resets the
    AM> value
    >> of 'i' to 10 which is a BUG.

    AM> Am I right to be shocked by some points (3) here ?

    AM> What kind of collaborative programming is that ?

    AM> 1) Two (at least apparently) developpers working on the same "function"
    AM> (enclosing scopes)
    AM>    and unaware of the current set of local variables
    AM> 2) A "function" (enclosing scopes) more than 200 lines big !
    AM> 3) An *innocent* 'for' loop with i as iteration variable !!!!!! I didn't
    AM> know such a thing existed !
    AM>    I suppose you might just as well write an innocently looking Hannibal
    AM> Lecter !

    AM> How can it be decently requested that a language protects you from such a
    AM> density of Bad Things(tm) ?

    AM> I am aware that local variables in ruby blocks, with possibly nested scope
    AM> bindings and stuff can be tricky to handle for a newcomer BUT the quoted
    AM> argument is a little bit too much.

    AM> Arnaud MEURET 
    AM> CWS
    AM> Software Architecture