From: Austin Ziegler <halostatue@...>
Date: 2006-05-16T03:41:56+09:00
Subject: Re: Struct.new vs class

On 5/15/06, Giles Bowkett <gilesb@gmail.com> wrote:
> is "*a" basically a keyword args flag that tells initialize() to take
> any and all args and just pass them up the chain to super()?

Except that it isn't keyword args. I like David Black's name for it:
the (un)array operator. It's an unary non-overridable operator on
arrays. When used on an array as a receiver, it indicates that it will
take a list of items and treat them as an array; when used on a sender
array, it splits that array out into a list:

  >> a = %w(a b c d e)
  => ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e"]
  >> b, c, *d = *a
  => ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e"]
  >> p a, b, c, d
  ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e"] # a
  "a" # b
  "b" # c
  ["c", "d", "e"] # d

-austin
-- 
Austin Ziegler * halostatue@gmail.com
               * Alternate: austin@halostatue.ca