From: Martin DeMello <martindemello@...>
Date: 2005-08-08T19:21:09+09:00
Subject: Re: String#to_ary and Test::Unit

Trans <transfire@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> No b/c I don't see any reason for String not to have a _default_
> representation as an array. The problem is that right now that

As I said, my primary objection is not the inconsistency, but the fact
that the array elements are Strings again.

Consider the following fragment

def to_tree
  if self.respond_to? (:each) and self.type != String # <-- ugly!
    self.node << self.map {|i| i.node}
  else
    self.node
  end
end

Similarly if you have a to_ary (as you yourself found out) - the way
things stand, *any* code that recursively descends an arbitrary object
this way will have to specialcase Strings.

Limited use case? Sure, but I've definitely run into it more often than
I've needed a String#random_Enumerable_method.

martin