From: Gavin Sinclair <gsinclair@...>
Date: 2002-08-05T07:54:14+09:00
Subject: Re: #Re: String -> Integer anomoly?


----- Original Message -----
From: "Kent Dahl" <kentda@stud.ntnu.no>


> Gavin Sinclair wrote:
> >
> > Hmmm, strikes me as a violation of POLS.
> >
> > Integer("012") != "012".to_i
> >
> > What do others think?
>
> Doesn't violate my PoLS atleast. Since Integer is a method of Kernel,
> and to_i (in this case) is a method of String, I am not surprised to see
> them have different takes on the matter. As in
>   "Hey, I'm the kernel, and I care about hex, octal and such geeky
> stuff."
> and
>   "Hey, I'm a (l)user input string, you don't think I'd be trying to be
> octal or anything that geeky, do ya?"
>

Interesting, because it surprised me when I found out that Integer was a
Kernel method!  I was thinking it must be a method of Integer, and playing
with irb, trying to create a class that could be instantiated in that way
(like Dir["."]).  Alas, I couldn't and it was not until I saw Guy's message
that I knew about Kernel::Integer().

Now, if Kernel::Integer() is so geeky, why can't it accept a radix?

Gavin