From: Mark Wilden <mark@...>
Date: 2008-05-21T13:24:22+09:00
Subject: Re: Is there any good source for the logic behind some of the methods?

On May 20, 2008, at 6:20 PM, Michael W. Ryder wrote:

> I am trying to figure out why methods that seem to do the same thing  
> behave so differently.  For example Integer("0377") returns 255 as  
> expected for an octal number but "0377".to_i returns 377.  Or why  
> Integer("12e3") crashes while Float("12e3") returns 12000.0 as  
> expected.  I was hoping to find somewhere that tells when to use one  
> or the other method depending upon expected inputs.  It is very time  
> consuming to have to keep testing a method to find out it's  
> limitations.

I would have to say that very few of us run into this problem,  
actually. :) Ruby is an agile language, meaning that it doesn't strive  
for completeness or perfection. It's just a tool to make some customer  
happy. And in my (and probably others') experience, parsing strings as  
octal integers simply doesn't arise in very many use cases.

Which is not to say that I don't think you should explore Ruby just as  
you're doing. But I've found (through 24 years of programming) that  
asking "why" isn't generally as fruitful as asking "how." I prefer to  
start from a need, then figure out how the language will let me  
fulfill that need; rather than starting by learning all the nooks and  
crannies of a language that, when all is said and done, was designed  
by imperfect humans.

Just some thoughts - not a criticism.

///ark