From: Gavin Sinclair <gsinclair@...>
Date: 2002-09-14T00:17:19+09:00
Subject: Re: Larry Wall's comments on Ruby


----- Original Message -----
From: "William Djaja Tjokroaminata" <billtj@z.glue.umd.edu>

> [heavily snipped]
>
> One case that has been mentioned
> before is for some people, the notion "for i in collection do" is more
> natural than "collection.each do i".  Of course, now for me the iterator
> syntax is very natural and consistent.  However, I would guess that a lot
> of scientists and engineers probably will raise their eyebrows the first
> time they see the iterator format.
>
> Regards,
>
> Bill

I love iterators, but I still find "for i in collection do" easier, because:
 - it's like the mathematical representation (upside down A)
 - every language I know has the "for" keyword ;)

One of the coolest (not highest-value, just coolest) things about Ruby, IMO, is
that "for a in x do ... end" is *nothing more than syntax sugar* for "x.each do
|a| ... end".  This is supreme orthoganality.  Being able to apply "for ..." to
your own classes is wonderful.

Gavin