From: Hal Fulton <hal9000@...>
Date: 2005-06-02T11:46:48+09:00
Subject: Re: ternary operator confusion

Eric Mahurin wrote:
> 
> I wish Ruby didn't make the () optional when passing args
> (probably from Perl which wanted to be like shells/tcl/lisp
> where command/function and arguments are space separated).
> 
> When you don't put the () in, the precendence can get confusing
> and you arbitrarily prevent the first arg to start with a "("
> (otherwise it will treat that "(" as what starts the argument
> list).
> 
> Why do people feel the need to drop the ()?  I didn't like it
> in Perl and I don't like it in Ruby.  Do people just want
> something  that is kind of like shell syntax?
> 

Personally I like poetry mode in many cases (not all). When
it's unclear, I use parens (just as I do in math expressions).
Um, in case that didn't make sense: I sometimes use *unnecessary*
parens in expressions for clarity.

Does anyone *always* puts parens on method calls in Ruby?
Maybe you or others do. Would you say

    attr_reader(:foo)

for example? Or call the loop method this way?

    loop() { puts "I'm an infinite loop!" }

What about raise and throw? Or exit?

    raise(AnException)
    throw(:something)
    exit()

Be careful with super... these two can actually mean
different things:

     super
     super()

However, though I like poetry mode, I don't go as far as the
person who uses it in method definitions:

    def mymeth a,b,c    # this always makes me blink

And I strongly tend to use parens in math functions:

    y = Math.sqrt(2)


Just my opinion.


Hal