From: Jacob Fugal <lukfugl@...>
Date: 2006-02-01T08:48:21+09:00
Subject: Re: [RCR] Numeric#of

On 1/31/06, Yukihiro Matsumoto <matz@ruby-lang.org> wrote:
> On 2/1/06, ara.t.howard@noaa.gov <ara.t.howard@noaa.gov> wrote:
> >    harp:~ > irb
> >    irb(main):001:0> class Numeric; def of(&b) Array::new(self).map(&b) end; end
> >    => nil
> >
> >    irb(main):002:0> 42.of{ String::new }
> >    => ["", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", "", ""]
>
> Using my not-yet-committed 1.9, you can type
>
>   42.times.collect{String::new}
>
> to get the same result.

Cool!

So does times still work with a block? I'm assuming that it switches
behavior, being a generator itself if a block is present, and creating
a generator object (which includes Enumerable) when no block is
provided.

Eg. (simplified):

  class Numeric
    def times( &blk )
      generator = # some code to create the generator
                  # that runs from 0 to self-1
      generator.each &blk if block_given?
      generator
    end
  end

If that's the case, this is awesome!

Jacob Fugal