From: twifkak@...
Date: 2005-07-20T03:40:42+09:00
Subject: Re: [RCR] nil for unassigned keys

> If you wanted the semantics of this,
> 
>    def baz(a, b=nil, c) ... end
> 
> you'd have to write it like this,
> 
>    def baz(a, *dummy, b=nil, c)
>      dummy.empty? or raise ArgumentError
>      ... end
> 
> which seems pretty annoying-for-no-reason.

At this point, I'd almost suggest a syntax for "method signature overloading" rather than adding funky optional logic:

def baz(a, c)
 ...
ordef baz(a, b, c)
 ...
end

Notice that the whole thing is one method definition, not two, so it doesn't have those overriding/overloading problems with Ruby.

Devin