From: Phillip Gawlowski <cmdjackryan@...>
Date: 2008-05-02T07:51:03+09:00
Subject: Re: Please explain nuances of ||=

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David A. Black wrote:
| Hi --
|
| It's possible to generalize it; someone in one of the threads wrote a
| class that showed the same behavior, but I can't remember the details.
| I do wish it were otherwise; it's definitely unexpected, I think.

Well, it is unexpected if you forget about the default value for Hash,
for example.

So, I agree: On first sight it *is* unintuitive. Once you think about,
though..

As a tangent:
I've just checked my copy of The Ruby Way, and its 'Training your
intuition' sub-chapter. This gotcha isn't part of it. :(

Maybe it could be added for the next edition (unless Ruby 1.9/2.0 is the
reason for the new edition, and the ambiguity/idiosyncrasy is removed in
the new version of Ruby by then).

- --
Phillip Gawlowski
Twitter: twitter.com/cynicalryan
Blog: http://justarubyist.blogspot.com

~   "Oops, I always forget the purpose of competition is to divide people
into
winners and losers." -Hobbes being sarcastic
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