From: "Berger, Daniel" <Daniel.Berger@...>
Date: 2005-07-19T00:43:58+09:00
Subject: Re: ruby-dev summary 26385-26467

> -----Original Message-----
> From: SASADA Koichi [mailto:ko1@atdot.net] 
> Sent: Monday, July 18, 2005 8:40 AM
> To: ruby-talk ML
> Subject: ruby-dev summary 26385-26467

<snip>

> NARUSE, Yui proposed that Ruby HEAD should include following 
> functions.
> 
> 1)  String#each_byte (without block) #=> Array
>     It's same function as "'string'.unpack('C*')".
> 2)  String#each_char (without block) #=> Array
> 3)  String#each_char (with block)    #=> str
>     String#each_char is same as "'string'.split(//).each".
> 
> Matz rejected (1) and (2), because it's not feature for 
> "each". He agreed to import these method if there are any 
> suitable name.

What about simply altering String#to_a?

String#to_a(bytes=false)
   Returns the string as an array of characters, or bytes if the +bytes+
argument is true.

I've never really liked the current implementation, where "foo".to_a
merely becomes ["foo"] - it just isn't useful usually.  However, I'm
also aware that modifying String#to_a could cause major breakage for
many current packages (mine included).  Is it worth it?  I'll let Matz
decide.

Regards,

Dan