From: ishamid <ishamid@...>
Date: 2006-11-28T06:30:07+09:00
Subject: Re: simple loops and recursion

An ambiguity:

I find it interesting that, in its output, Ruby (and I guess other
programming languages as well) have no convention for the use-mention
distinction. For example:

===================
def expect(msg, expected_value)
  puts "#{msg}#{expected_value}:"
  loop do
    actual_value = gets.chomp.to_i
    return actual_value if actual_value == expected_value
    puts "Sorry, expected #{expected_value} but got #{actual_value}"
  end
end

expect('We want ', '98')
===================

gives me

===================
Sorry, expected 98 but got 98
===================

Of course, the problem is that I entered a string not an integer.

The output does not distinguish number from numeral. Is this standard
or is there something else going on?

Best
Idris