From: Ashley Moran <work@...>
Date: 2006-04-02T23:41:58+09:00
Subject: I can't get hash list params working

Hi

I must be doing something stoopid here.  Can anyone explain why I get  
an error on the last line of this irb session?

irb(main):014:0> def a(a=nil,*b)
irb(main):015:1>   puts a.inspect
irb(main):016:1>   puts b.inspect
irb(main):017:1> end
=> nil
irb(main):018:0> a(1 => "one", 2 => "two")
{1=>"one", 2=>"two"}
[]
=> nil
irb(main):019:0> a(1 => "one", 2 => "two", 1)
SyntaxError: compile error
(irb):19: parse error, unexpected ')', expecting tASSOC
         from (irb):19
         from :0


Surely the output should be
   {1=>"one", 2=>"two"}
   [1]
?

I tried the example in Pickaxe v2 (p349) and got a similar error.   
Someone please slap my head for me :)

thanks
Ashley