From: pjb@... (Pascal J. Bourguignon)
Date: 2009-03-04T18:48:40+09:00
Subject: Re: fixnum problem plz help

Brian Candler <b.candler@pobox.com> writes:

> Pascal J. Bourguignon wrote:
>> In more strongly typed programming languages such as Common Lisp,
>> you'd get an error:
>> 
>> C/USER[929]> (* "2" 365)
>> 
>> *** - *: "2" is not a number
>
> This is nothing to do with "strongly typed". Ruby's concept of the 
> difference between a string and an integer is just as strict as LISP's.
>
> Rather, Ruby provides semantics to the '*' operator/function for strings 
> which LISP doesn't.
>
> You can get exactly the behaviour you desire by _removing_ some Ruby 
> functionality.
>
> irb(main):001:0> String.class_eval { undef_method(:*) }
> => String
> irb(main):002:0> "2" * 365
> NoMethodError: undefined method `*' for "2":String
>   from (irb):2
>   from :0

Right, it is too much overloading, not weak typing.  Sorry for the confusion.

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__