From: Steve Wilhelm <steve@...831.com>
Date: 2009-11-17T16:17:29+09:00
Subject: Re: Meaning of '!(...'    EG: "myObject.parse!(argv)"   ..?

Michelle Pace wrote:
> 
> Thanks for your reply Ryan... I'm surprised! So... are you saying that 
> the method calls
> 
>          opts.parse!(argv)   and     opts.parse(argv)
> 
> effectively do the same thing?

Section 6.2 of "The Ruby Programming Language" by Flanagan & Matsumoto, 
explains that a method that ends with an exclamation mark is a naming 
convention indicating to the programmer that the method "should be used 
with caution."

It goes on to explain that most of the time this is due to the fact that 
the method is a mutator; a method that alters the internal state of the 
object.

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