From: John Joyce <dangerwillrobinsondanger@...>
Date: 2007-10-16T14:07:30+09:00
Subject: Re: nil.to_i returning zero

Jörg put it well.
nil in Ruby is very useful.
nil has methods that are convenient.
Most singletons have very convenient methods.
If nil.to_i bothers you, you might consider that your objects or  
algorithms are off the Ruby way.
It is entirely convenient and useful sometimes to have a to_i for nil  
and that it should be zero.
It doesn't mean that :
nil == 0
it means :
nil.to_i == 0

Not:
nil < 1
but:
nil.to_i < 1

Convenience method.
In most cases nil will cause an unexpected nil object error.