From: Aleks Kissinger <aleks0@...>
Date: 2006-07-29T01:28:54+09:00
Subject: Re: Symbols are your friends

> Because I only think the #to_x methods are directly related to types.
> They even have more nuances than class-based types; there's a difference
> between defining #to_s and defining #to_str, for example.
>

In the spirit of making sure I understand, and perhaps explaining this
to anyone else that may be confused, the difference in these two kinds
of methods:

If an object _can_ be represented as an integer in some cases (e.g. a
string, which could be set to something like "12"), it implements
to_i.

If an object _is_ a natural representation of an integer, (like roman
numerals, as the example the Pickaxe gives), it implements to_int.

So this makes sense, though nothing about the naming convention of
these methods makes this particularly clear.  However, this brings up
the question:  If something acts exactly like an integer method-wise,
whats the benefit of explicitly calling to_int?  This seems like a non
duck-typey thing to do.


Aleks