From: Child <child@...9.ds.pwr.wroc.pl>
Date: 2003-02-16T22:02:48+09:00
Subject: Ruby 1.8 preview1 questions


Hello

I have just installed Ruby 1.8.0 and find some changes to the syntax,
which I find confusing. These are:

1.
irb(main):018:0> string = "asdfasdf"
=> "asdfasdf"
irb(main):019:0> string.method("to_i").call
=> 0
irb(main):020:0> string.method ("to_i").call
NoMethodError: undefined method `call' for "to_i":String
        from (irb):20
				from :0

So basically if I type a space before opening parenthese I get an error.
I don't think spacing should influence semantics (at least in this
place)

2.
irb(main):027:0> class Klass     
irb(main):028:1> def append ()
irb(main):029:2> return "jfdasdfj"
irb(main):030:2> end
irb(main):031:1> def do_something ()
irb(main):032:2> string = "asdfasdf"
irb(main):033:2> string << append ()
irb(main):034:2> end
irb(main):035:1> end
SyntaxError: compile error
(irb):33: parse error
string << append ()
                  ^
				from (irb):35
        from :0
				
irb(main):036:0> class Klass
irb(main):037:1> def append ()
irb(main):038:2> return "jfdasdfj"
irb(main):039:2> end
irb(main):040:1> def do_something ()
irb(main):041:2> string = "asdfasdf"
irb(main):042:2> string << append   
irb(main):043:2> end
irb(main):044:1> end
=> nil

So if I append () to the method call I got an error. I usually append ()
when calling method with no parameters to distinguish it from local
variables.


My question is: what was the reason to make such changes?

-- 
Marek Janukowicz