From: Warren Brown <wkb@...>
Date: 2003-05-24T07:07:45+09:00
Subject: [Q] Change in 1.8 String#=~ intentional?

    In converting some code from Ruby version 1.6.8 to 1.8, I found that the
construct:

"x" =~ "[x]"

    has apparently changed behavior.  In version 1.6.8, String#=~ will
convert a String argument into a Regexp.  In version 1.8, apparently this is
now translated into a call to String#index.  This can lead to results like:

%ruby -ve "p 'x^x' =~ '^x'"
ruby 1.6.8 (2002-12-24) [i386-freebsd4.7]
0

%ruby -ve "p 'x^x' =~ '^x'"
ruby 1.8.0 (2003-05-01) [i386-freebsd4.7]
1

    Is this change intentional?  It would seem that this change would affect
a lot of exsiting code in subtle, hard-to-find ways :o(

    - Warren Brown