From: Todd Benson <caduceass@...>
Date: 2009-05-13T11:02:45+09:00
Subject: Re: Whaaaaat?

On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 8:34 PM, Tom Cloyd <tomcloyd@comcast.net> wrote:
> Robert Dober wrote:
>>
>> On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 1:57 AM, Tom Cloyd <tomcloyd@comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Why can't ruby just do what I mean, rather than what I say? Is that
>>> asking
>>> too much? (heh heh)
>>>
>>
>> But it does, I am sure you just forgot the *, right?
>> [*0..5].include? 42
>> --> false
>> Cheers
>> Robert
>>
>>
>>
>
> Robert,
>
> Interesting, but obscure. I just did a quick dig into Thomas (Pickaxe, 3rd
> ed.), to try to figure out what [*1..5] does, and I still don't get it. Can
> you explain?

The"pre-appending" (yes I'm aware that's not a word or proper
conjuction) _star_ flattens arrays/ranges.  Well, not exactly; it
allows you to use a "list" of things.  Some people avoid it because of
a supposed performance issue.  Pick your battle, I guess.

It happens to be useful to me.  I really hope they don't get rid of
that nomenclature (much like getting rid of #inject; if so, goodbye
Ruby for me).

Todd