From: Colin Bartlett <colinb2r@...>
Date: 2010-09-10T23:08:58+09:00
Subject: Re: Receiving array naturally?

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On Fri, Sep 10, 2010 at 7:10 AM, Clifford Heath <no@spam.please.net> wrote:

> Terry Michaels wrote:
>
>> If I might ask, what exactly is the line
>>  strings = *strings
>> doing?
>> For that matter, I could use a little more clarification on what the '*'
>> (glob?) operator does...
>>
>
> It's not really a normal operator, rather it's part of Ruby's syntax
> that happens to look like an operator, and in some cases operates like
> one. It's often called the splat operator because it looks like a
>  squashed bug ;-). It means different things in different contexts. ...

That's a useful summary of assignment, which might well be worth putting
somewhere permanent.


> This is just a magic part of Ruby's syntax, mostly useful for confusing
>  newbies and making your code unreadable except by wizards ;-).
>
 Unless you put a small comment explaining the code, but that defeats the
object of the last part of that sentence! :)

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