From: dblack@...
Date: 2002-09-14T05:35:16+09:00
Subject: Re: private variables

Hi --

On Sat, 14 Sep 2002, Kent Dahl wrote:

> > 2) The use of a new symbol.
> > Ruby is to some extent influenced by Perl, and in Perl "$", "@", and
> > "%" are used to denote the type of variables.  Ruby has used "$" and
> > "@" for special meaning for variables, so this suggests to use "%" prefix
> > for private variables.
>
> IIRC, neither of $ or @ are used as operators, but % is modulus in Ruby.
> I can't think of any case where it would not be backwards compatible,
> but I think it looks confusing:
> 	a = b%c  # b modulus c
> 	a = b %c # call method b with one argument; private variable c
> But then, perhaps we have enough training dealing with this confusion
> due to things like a +5 versus a+5...

Here's an non-backwards compatible case:

  %q__ = "some private thing"
  a = %q__

What's the value of a at this point?

> Now, earlier when the talk of local variables came up, I noticed the �
> sign sitting to the left of the $ on my keyboard. The pound sign almost
> looks like a L too! (L for local. ) Or maybe even �, which looks like to
> S's (supersecret perhaps). Don't take these ideas too serious though. I
> do not prefer to program in ASCII art. :-)

I was musing before on '#', which has a secretive/private connotation,
as a variable prefix :-)  Thinking about these things makes one
increasingly grateful for the non-punctuation-riddenness of Ruby.


David

-- 
David Alan Black                      | Register for RubyConf 2002!
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