From: "David A. Black" <dblack@...>
Date: 2005-01-20T00:54:54+09:00
Subject: Re: value by reference

Hi --

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005, Michel Martens wrote:

> On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 00:19:13 +0900, David A. Black <dblack@wobblini.net> wrote:
>>
>> What would you replace 5 with? :-)
>>
>> (Remember, you're sending the 'replace' method to an *object*, not an
>> identifier.)
>
> Hi, David. I know how it works now, that's why it's a proposal. The
> idea would be to modify the language to allow that kind of
> manipulation. Then, the following methods would be allowed:
>
> a = 'hello world'  # String
> a.replace(/\w+/)  # Regexp
> a.replace(35)  # Fixnum
> a.replace(SomeClass.new)  # SomeClass
>
> And then you would be able to add methods like to_s! or to_i!, etcetera.

I guess that's similar to the "become" idea that people have discussed
at various times.  I personally see it as a solution in search of a
problem, but I know it's popular with the meta-meta-meta-3vi1 crowd
:-)


David

-- 
David A. Black
dblack@wobblini.net