From: Dossy <dossy@...>
Date: 2002-07-07T23:02:31+09:00
Subject: Re: Pre-RCR... nil.empty?

On 2002.07.07, Dave Thomas <Dave@PragmaticProgrammer.com> wrote:
> David Alan Black <dblack@candle.superlink.net> writes:
> 
> > But you could also argue that there's an element of chance or
> > coincidence here.  Going back to your original problem, it's true that
> > cgi.params["param"][0] could be either nil or "", and that both of
> > those are unacceptable.  But nil and "" crop up, in this context, for
> > different reasons: nil indicates no param named "param", while ""
> > indicates an existent but zero-length value.
> 
> Of course, in a pure sense you're right.
> 
> But if you ever wrote a decent sized web application in Ruby, you
> might change your mind :)

Again, a reason why I think CGI#params should return a Param that
inherits from Array rather than simply return an Array of String
and NilClass objects ... ;-)

Then you could happily define Param#empty? to Do The Right Thing for
you.

-- Dossy

-- 
Dossy Shiobara                       mail: dossy@panoptic.com 
Panoptic Computer Network             web: http://www.panoptic.com/ 
  "He realized the fastest way to change is to laugh at your own
    folly -- then you can let go and quickly move on." (p. 70)