From: Brad Ediger <brad@...>
Date: 2007-03-26T07:38:51+09:00
Subject: Re: Suggestion: swap name of "puts" and "print" and rename "puts" to "put_s"

On Mar 25, 2007, at 5:31 PM, David A. Black wrote:

> On 3/25/07, Brian Candler <B.Candler@pobox.com> wrote:
>
>> So I started thinking along the lines of: instead of using global  
>> variable
>> $_ as a kind of temporary register to pass data between methods,  
>> how could
>> this construct be made more Rubyish? For example, like a case  
>> statement,
>> "if /foo/" could translate to "if /foo/ === self" ?
>>
>> But then I realised: perhaps this is all just a marketing scam.  
>> Maybe $_ and
>> friends exist in the language, not because they have any real use,  
>> but just
>> to sucker in Perl programmers. They see them there, and think  
>> "great, this
>> is like Perl, I'll give Ruby a try". Once they're hooked, they  
>> won't use
>> them any more than the rest of us do.
>>
>> If that's true, the construct clearly *has* to use $_ to fulfil  
>> its purpose
>> :-)
>
> I'd love to see some of the Perl stuff disappear, and it's perenially
> in the Ruby TODO file.  I can hardly think of a case where I've seen
> anyone use $_ in Ruby.

I came to Ruby from Perl, and the $_ et al. definitely hooked me. But  
I quickly drank the Kool-Aid and I haven't used the $_ in years.

--be