From: Jeremy <thinker5555@...>
Date: 2003-03-12T11:12:58+09:00
Subject: How to add a destructive method to the String class...

Hi,

I just started learning Ruby this weekend, and I have to say that I've
fallen in love with it so far.  It's a beautiful beautiful language.  =0)

In messing around with it, I found that I needed a method that capitalizes
all the words in a string, assuming that each word is seperated by a space. 
I did this, and it works fine:

class String
    def capwords
        self.split.each { |word| word.capitalize! }.join(" ")
    end
end

It does what I need, but it got me thinking.  How would I make this
destructive?  In other words, rather than having to do an assingment like
this:

title = "This is the title"

title = title.capwords

I'd like to do this instesad:

title.capwords!

I tried creating a capwords! method, using the line from capwords, and I
added a "self =" directive in front of the code of the capwords method, but
Ruby tells me "Can't change the value of self".

Would anyone have any words of wisdom, or at least a directional pointer, on
what to do with this?  I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks,
Jeremy