From: ts <decoux@...>
Date: 2001-10-26T23:00:02+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:23447] Re: Issues with white space [was Re: Bruce Eckel's opinion of Ruby]

>>>>> "S" == Sean Russell <ser@efn.org> writes:

S> Raja S. wrote:
>> puts( (����8
>> +�20)�/�2) => 10

S> This is really, really bizarre.  Can anyone explain to me why this is true? 
S> A parse error, I could understand... but 10?

pigeon% ruby -e 'puts((8 ; + 20) / 2)'
10
pigeon% 

 And if you want to see it internally

pigeon% ruby -rii -e 'dump; puts((8 ; + 20) / 2)'
eval_tree
BLOCK
  NEWLINE <-e:1>
  VCALL dump 
  NEWLINE <-e:1>
  FCALL puts 
    ARRAY
      CALL / 
        BLOCK
          NEWLINE <-e:1>
          LIT 8
          NEWLINE <-e:1>
          LIT 20
        ARRAY
          LIT 2

10
pigeon% 

 because ruby has seen `;' (or newline) this was interpreted as a block of
 instructions, and the block return the value of the last statement.


Guy Decoux