From: Austin Ziegler <austin@...>
Date: 2002-10-24T01:08:14+09:00
Subject: Re: Things That Newcomers to Ruby Should Know (10/16/02)

On Thu, 24 Oct 2002 00:23:33 +0900, Mills Thomas (app1tam) wrote:
>> -----Original Message----- From: Hal E. Fulton
>> It's a feature. :) The notation a+=b really, REALLY means a = a +
>> b. There is a + operator, but never a += operator, in Ruby (or
>> any other assignment).
> But why does it really, REALLY mean that? Was there a reason for
> doing this? Is it non-trivial to have '+=' mean 'append()'?

It's non-sensical. << exists only as Array#<<, String#<<, and IO#<<
and means three different things. Array#<< is the same as
Array#push, IO#<< is similar to IO#puts, and String#<< is the same
as String#concat. Do you wish to create language exceptions for
three classes? How would 1.append(2) work (to use your notation)?
Why should there be exceptions to the object/language model in this
case?

-austin
-- Austin Ziegler, austin@halostatue.ca on 2002.10.23 at 12.00.16