From: Austin Ziegler <austin@...>
Date: 2002-12-02T08:52:44+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby ++, the one element and generators

On Mon, 2 Dec 2002 05:01:35 +0900, Mauricio Fern�ndez wrote:
> WARNING: rather long.

[I haven't really had time to read this in depth. I scanned it.]

This seems like an overly complex solution to a facility that I
personally haven't seen a really demonstrated need for. IMO, ++ adds
no real value. It could be "nice", but that nice-ness comes at
changing the way that variables work in Ruby -- which is *just* as
references to objects.

In the three Ruby projects that I've done, I have only one where
I've done "a += 1" (although it's all over that one, and I could
probably refactor that code to be much cleaner), and that a += 1
behaviour is for a rather inconsequential purpose (status update).

It would be nicer to be able to do Inc(a) or a++, but the cost -- to
the Ruby language, IMO -- of doing such a thing isn't worth the
minor savings of keyboarding.

To me, ++ has a HUGE downside: it's an assignment masquerading as an
increment. There is nothing for the novice which suggests that a++
is actually assigning as well as incrementing, unlike a += 1.

In C-derived languages, I'll use a++; in Pascal, I'll use Inc(a). In
Ruby, however, I'll tend to use a.each, a.each_with_index, a.times,
or something else -- or a += 1 if I absolutely must have a counter
like that.

-austin
-- Austin Ziegler, austin@halostatue.ca on 2002.12.01 at 18.45.47