From: Eric Mahurin <eric_mahurin@...>
Date: 2005-08-11T04:09:39+09:00
Subject: Re: new block notation

--- Ben Giddings <bg-rubytalk@infofiend.com> wrote:

> On Aug 6, 2005, at 11:36, Daniel Brockman wrote:
> > I guess the confusion is this:
> >
> >    {}         # hash
> >    {||}       # proc
> >    foo {}     # block
> >    foo({})    # hash
> >    foo {||}   # block
> >    foo({||})  # proc
> >
> > Compare that to the arguably saner
> >
> >    {}         # proc
> >    {||}       # proc
> >    foo {}     # block
> >    foo({})    # proc
> >    foo {||}   # block
> >    foo({||})  # proc
> >    [:]        # hash
> >    foo [:]    # hash
> >    foo([:])   # hash
> 
> I agree that the current syntax is really confusing.  Since
> Ruby 2.0  
> has a new major version number, I think that fixing
> confusing/broken  
> things should take precedence over backwards-compatibility. 
> It's all  
> up to Matz and what he finds least surprising, but to me the
> current  
> syntax for arrays and blocks is too confusing.  I would
> prefer it  
> they were made unambiguous
> 
> I'd vote for either getting rid of {} for blocks and only
> allowing  
> 'do ... end'.  That may be an unpopular suggestion, but I
> think it  
> makes the most sense.  It's already a little confusing that
> there are  
> two equal, yet different ways of creating a block.
> 
> This leads to people having their own conventions, like using
> {} only  
> when it's a one-line block, and do ... end when it's a
> multiline  
> block; or using {} when it returns a value, but do ... end
> when it  
> doesn't.
> 
> Whatever the resolution though, I would prefer to see a
> situation  
> where only one of blocks and hashes used {}, despite the
> backwards- 
> compatibility issues.

I agree with this last statement too.  I'd rather keep the {}
for blocks/lambdas.  But, I don't think we should move the
ambiguity from blocks vs. hashes (overloading {}) to arrays vs.
hashes (overloading []).  It would be better for hashes to just
have their own unambiguous syntax.



		
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