From: Brian Candler <B.Candler@...>
Date: 2003-04-25T22:08:20+09:00
Subject: Re: How to call an object instance's method?

On Fri, Apr 25, 2003 at 09:54:16PM +0900, Michael Campbell wrote:
> > Yes, many of us agree; but there's no getting over the fact that
> > this really
> > bugs matz:
> > 
> >   puts (a+b).abs
> >   (puts(a+b)).abs
> 
> 
> what about that bugs him?  I'm not sure I understand; are the 2 lines
> equivalent, and that is bad?)

I think it's that it doesn't Do The Right Thing[TM], i.e. in this case you
might expect

     puts (a+b).abs

to do

     puts ((a+b).abs)

and in 1.8.0p2, it does - but only if you remember the space after 'puts'

The more I think about this, the more I think that either:
- the 1.6.8 behaviour is better, or
- make poetry mode compulsory: that is, disallow parentheses around
  argument lists altogether, to eliminate the ambiguity.

The latter would make the language less C-like, and would force you to write

    (sin a) + b

instead of

    sin(a) + b

What do people think of that??

Regards,

Brian.