From: Rob Biedenharn <Rob@...>
Date: 2010-07-07T22:25:49+09:00
Subject: Re: New, but this seems odd...


On Jul 7, 2010, at 9:01 AM, Andrew Wagner wrote:

> Ok, granted that I'm pretty new to ruby, but this seems odd to me:
>
> irb(main):001:0> x = [1,2,3]
> => [1, 2, 3]
> irb(main):002:0> x.delete 2
> => 2
> irb(main):003:0> x
> => [1, 3]
>
> With this behavior, wouldn't "delete!" be a more appropriate name?



Read http://dablog.rubypal.com/2007/8/15/bang-methods-or-danger-will-rubyist

Is there some kind of interpretation of "delete" that doesn't imply  
the receiving object will be changed?

Compare Hash#update and Hash#merge, for example.  Hash#update changes  
the receiving hash, which Hash#merge creates a new hash with extra/ 
overwritten keys from the argument hash.  It shouldn't be too  
surprising that Hash#merge! is an alias of Hash#update.

-Rob

Rob Biedenharn		
Rob@AgileConsultingLLC.com	http://AgileConsultingLLC.com/
rab@GaslightSoftware.com		http://GaslightSoftware.com/