From: James Britt <james_b@...>
Date: 2005-05-07T21:46:05+09:00
Subject: Re: Prove me Wrong! Re: RCR 303: nil should accept missing methods

Ryan Davis wrote:
> 
> On May 5, 2005, at 8:39 PM, John Carter wrote:
> 
>> If I prove wrong, I will gladly retract my RCR and apologise.
> 
> 
> The burden of proof (that this is needed) must sit on you, not on us  
> (that this is not needed).
> 
> Either way, I still agree with Eric, there is no reason for this to  be 
> an RCR since the whole thing is 5 simple lines of ruby that any  user 
> can selectively use as they see fit. If someone wants to use it,  they 
> require a very small file. If they don't want to use it, they  don't do 
> anything special.

Yes, and the nil.blackhole switch is a very handy idea; one could turn 
this on and off for blocks of code where the alternative behavior seemed 
useful.

But the general idea of nil silently consuming all messages turns duck 
typing into duck hunting.


James