From: Trans <transfire@...>
Date: 2009-08-24T23:27:46+09:00
Subject: Re: 1.8.7 String#lines keeps new-line chars (say it ain't so in 1.9)



On Aug 24, 9:17 am, Brian Candler <b.cand...@pobox.com> wrote:
> Thomas Sawyer wrote:
> > To me returning the newline code with #lines would be like returning
> > the spaces for a method #words. Eg.
>
> >   "show it\nto me".words => ["show ", "it\n", "to ", "me "]
>
> ...except there is no built-in method 'words' so you can't accuse it of
> being inconsistent :-)

ok ;) ...just making an analogy.

> Some people would want lines with trailing whitespace stripped as well
> as terminators. Some people would want leading whitespace stripped too.
> I don't think you can please everyone, so IMO the most flexible and
> consistent approach is to give the line complete with its terminator,
> and let the user apply whatever post-processing they like.

Sure, but at that point we are moving into a realm of narrower
usecases. I believe the short, more concise method name should go to
the most frequent use. I have no definitive statistics, but I'd wager
that split("\n") is by far the more common case. Based on that, I'd
rather see the current def be called something else, like #newlines or
#rawlines. But Ruby is ultimately Matz' baby so maybe his more common
use is otherwise.

> > I think the broader issue here is the question of whether or not
> > String is intended for use by code-point (ie. low-level character)
> > manipulators, or for higher-level human-oriented textual manipulation.
> > I always thought StringIO was for the former case. But now I am seeing
> > Ruby's String is some sort of hodge-podge mixture of the two.
>
> I think StringIO is for when you want to duck-type a File, but with
> in-RAM backing.
>
> ruby is certainly lacking consistency in this area. In ruby 1.9, for
> example, IO still has #each (meaning #each_line), whereas String doesn't
> any more.

Yea, I think that b/c StringIO is an IO first and foremost. So I don't
think String should aspire to be like StringIO per se. And StringIO
can only be like String insofar as it doesn't interfere with it being
an IO. By I may be presuming too much.

Appreciate the discussion.