[ruby-talk:02116] Re: ARGF or $<

Hugh Sasse wrote:

> On Fri, 24 Mar 2000, ARIMA Yasuhiro wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > Hugh Sasse Staff Elec Eng <[e-mail]> wrote
> >
> > |     Ah, so it is an Array of lines of the concatenated input files.
> > |     Effectively, anyway.   This was not clear from the description:
> > |
> > | >> The virtual concatenation file of the files given by command line
> > | >> arguments, or stdin (in case no
> > | >> argument file supplied). $<.file returns the current
> > | >> filename. (Mnemonic: $< is a shell input source.)
> >
> > If you write the paragraph, how do ?
>
> Having seen the different answers, I can see that it is more than
> just a list of lines.  The problem I had with this paragraph is that
> it says "the virtual concatenation file" but it is not of class File.
>
> I would say something like:
>
>
> The concatenation of all the files given as command line arguments, or
> stdin (in the case where there are no arguments), but the object is
> not of class file.  It is an Object with the following methods:
>
> each         gives you each line of the concatenated file
> each_line    is the same as each
> each_byte    gives you each byte of the concatenated file
> file         gives you the name of the file being processed
> fileno       ...
> ...          ...
>
>
> That way you can see what can be done with the object.  Does that
> suggestion seem useful?  It make the documentation bigger, though!

I think this (plus the latest suggestion by Dave Thomas) is a big
improvement.

Conrad Schneiker
(This note is unofficial and subject to improvement without notice.)