From: mental@...
Date: 2006-02-10T03:38:01+09:00
Subject: Re: boolean annoyance

Quoting Claudio Jeker <cjeker@diehard.n-r-g.com>:

> OK this is a valid argument against changing behaviour because it
> would cause a major regression to existing scripts. I think I
> have to swallow this pill and change my coding stile for ruby.
> Doing binary protocols in ruby is a bit more challenging than
> expected.

For what it's worth, if you find yourself typing stuff like:

 ( x & mask ).nonzero?

over and over, you shouldn't tolerate that.  DRY -- refactor the
repeated bits it into a separate method instead.

one possibility might be:

 class Integer
   def intersect?( mask )
     ( self & mask ).nonzero?
   end
 end

Used like:

 if x.intersect? 0x1c
   ...
 end

Maybe you can think of a better name though.

-mental