From: Chad Perrin <perrin@...>
Date: 2007-04-16T13:17:19+09:00
Subject: Re: translate Perl diamond operator to Ruby

On Mon, Apr 16, 2007 at 12:18:12PM +0900, James Edward Gray II wrote:
> 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.

Nor do I.  I found the more implementation-related description to be
somewhat useful, however, once I got past the opining.

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
"It's just incredible that a trillion-synapse computer could actually
spend Saturday afternoon watching a football game." - Marvin Minsky