From: "Hal E. Fulton" <hfulton@...>
Date: 2000-07-07T18:16:15-07:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:03896] Re: Array.uniq! returning nil

That's a very interesting idea, Hugh. But how does
the caller know that the cut failed?

Hal

> 
> Thank you.  One more might be a new operator.  I don't know
> what to call it so I will call it cut for now, for the sake
> of argument: 
> 
> a.modifier!().cut.method1.method2
> 
> where cut short-circuits the other methd calls if its receiver
> is nil. Otherwise it returns its receiver, passing it on for 
> the subsequent methods.
> 
> Then nil.cut would be like failure in Icon, the rest of the
> statement is not executed, but nobody gets upset about it.
> 
> I think cut is the wrong name because cut is complelely different
> in prolog, IIRC, and it doesn't look like an operator. <!> might
> look like a conditional cutting action....
> 
> Hugh
> hgs@dmu.ac.uk
>