From: Daniel Amelang <daniel.amelang@...>
Date: 2005-03-23T08:38:15+09:00
Subject: Re: RCR 296: Destructive methods return self

> And you'll have to agree that that won't work.

Yes, with the current state of Ruby, you are right. But let's travel
back and take another look at matz's original idea: introducing _true_
multiple return values. With this change, the following methods will
no longer be equivalent:

def get_array
  return [1,2]
end

def get_mult_values
  return 1, 2
end

If we had true multiple return values (as part of the language), we
could then use the methods like this:

a = get_array                 # [1,2]
a = get_mult_values       # 1
a, b = get_mult_values

This was what he meant in the first place by 'true multiple return
values'. I, personally, find it cleaner than having 3 methods for each
bang method (strip, strip!, strip!?) and it has potential for other
uses.

Although I _really_ want to write a 'what!?' method someday :)

Dan