From: "Hal E. Fulton" <hal9000@...>
Date: 2002-10-24T10:03:47+09:00
Subject: Re: Things That Newcomers to Ruby Should Know (10/16/02)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mills Thomas (app1tam)" <app1tam@ups.com>
To: "ruby-talk ML" <ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 10:23 AM
Subject: Re: Things That Newcomers to Ruby Should Know (10/16/02)


> 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 fairly trivial to change the behavior, but the 
overall impact on the language is nontrivial.

You wouldn't want it to mean "append" for numbers, 
right? What about the zillion other classes that
exist or might be defined?

Currently += simply is *not* an operator on 
its own. To make it independent of + is a 
major language change, IMO.

Right now it's simple and regular, and unless 
you're counting milliseconds you don't care
that an intermediate object is created.

Well, there are times you do care. See the 
threads chapter in _The Ruby Way_.

Hal