From: dblack@...
Date: 2003-02-06T20:38:18+09:00
Subject: Re: Local variables & blocks

Hi --

On Thu, 6 Feb 2003, Brian Candler wrote:

> On Thu, Feb 06, 2003 at 09:23:21AM +0900, dblack@candle.superlink.net wrote:
> > This is the part I've never understood.  Even if you write a method
> > with no blocks, you still have to know whether or not you've used a
> > variable name.
>
> Not necessarily, in the case of throw-away temporary variables:

But the whole idea of a 'throw-away' name is that you *know* (because
you've decided) what you're going to do with it.  Having decided that
'i' is a throw-away name, you then know this, and will not use 'i'
except in such cases.

Many of the drawbacks people describe to the way Ruby handles block
variables seem to be based on the idea that there are cases where you
don't know what variable names you've used.  That's what I find
uncompelling as a reason to change the behavior.


David

-- 
David Alan Black
home: dblack@candle.superlink.net
work: blackdav@shu.edu
Web:  http://pirate.shu.edu/~blackdav