From: Warren Brown <wkb@...>
Date: 2003-07-29T01:03:28+09:00
Subject: Re: Should String#strip take a parameter?

matz,

>>  1)  rstrip removes "\0", lstrip doesn't.  [disharmonic]
>>  2)  feature is added elsewhere.
>>  3)  change is backed-out and forgotten.
>
> or
>   4) rstrip removes sequence of "\0" at the end of string. lstrip
>       doesn't.

    Since String#strip was originally intended to remove leading and
trailing whitespaces, it seems strange for it to also strip "\0"s (leading
or trailing).  I have never seen a language where whitespace included "\0",
and Ruby does not include "\0" in any other definition of whitespace.

    However, if we allowed the String#strip methods to accept a regular
expression as a parameter (as has been suggested) then this becomes a
non-issue.  The old (1.6) functionality can stay the same, and people that
want to strip trailing "\0"s can do this via a simple regular expression.

    This is a fairly easy change to the String#strip methods, and could be
included in the 1.8 preview6 if there are problems with preview5.  I would
be happy to provide the patches.

    - Warren Brown