From: Brian Candler <B.Candler@...>
Date: 2003-02-02T03:01:45+09:00
Subject: Re: String#+

> The fact that this feature would make Ruby easier to learn was a
> small twig on the fire

Well, perhaps it gives some material for an advanced Ruby class: how to
override methods you don't like.

class String
  alias oldplus +
  def +(other)
    oldplus(other.to_s)
  end
end

"hello"+5

> I was generating SQL statements at the time.

Hopefully nothing like this:

sql = "select * from foo where key = '" + myvar + "'"

If you encourage your students to do that, sooner or later their databases
will get hacked :-)

Since the statement should invoke a quoting function anyway, that function
can do the implicit to_s that you want.

Regards,

Brian.