From: James Edward Gray II <james@...>
Date: 2007-04-16T12:18:12+09:00
Subject: Re: translate Perl diamond operator to Ruby

On Apr 15, 2007, at 5:07 PM, Chad Perrin wrote:

> On Mon, Apr 16, 2007 at 05:27:24AM +0900, Benjohn Barnes wrote:
>>
>> What _is_ ARGF? I've printed it's class, but apparently it is:
>>
>>> irb(main):003:0> ARGF.class
>>> => Object
>>
>> ... an Object.
>>
>
> Now that I know ARGF exists . . .
>
> http://www.danvk.org/wp/?m=200701 reports the following:
>
>   ARGF is a great crutch for Perl programmers who miss typing while 
> (<>)
>   {...}. It opens each input file left in ARGV and yields each  
> line. If
>   there�s no input files left, it reads STDIN and yields each line it
>   gets there. Many, many programs do their work in an ARGF loop.

I don't much care for that description.  ARGF simplifies the  
implementation of some very common behavior for command-line  
programs.  I don't feel it exists merely as a crutch for Perl  
programmers.

James Edward Gray II