From: Arlen Christian Mart Cuss <celtic@...>
Date: 2007-11-10T09:39:46+09:00
Subject: Re: odd error

Hi,

On Sat, 2007-11-10 at 08:19 +0900, Bob Hutchison wrote:
> On 9-Nov-07, at 6:13 PM, Roger Pack wrote:
> 
> > irb(main):006:0> {}.merge {:a => 3}
> > SyntaxError: compile error
> > (irb):6: syntax error, unexpected tASSOC, expecting '}'
> > {}.merge {:a => 3}
> >
> > ???
> > {}.merge({:a => 3}) works, though.  Is this a grammar problem?
> 
> 
> Ambiguity I guess.
> 
> It is taking the {:a => 3} as a block rather than as a hash argument  
> (merge is defined to allow that). The parenthesis resolves the  
> ambiguity.

Right. "=>" is the tASSOC that ruby's talking about. Since it thought
you were having a block there, the only valid thing you could have
after :a would be an end of block (i.e. :a is your return value).

> Cheers,
> Bob


Arlen