From: Stephen White <steve@...>
Date: 2000-12-22T22:53:49+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:7950] Re: defined? problem?

On Fri, 22 Dec 2000, Dave Thomas wrote:

> The two options above differ in that in one the condition textually
> precedes the 'something' and in the other it follows it. Variables
> first assigned to in the 'something' will therefore be available to
> the condition in the modifier form, but not in the conventional form.

Simplest example:

  irb(main):007:0> b
  NameError: undefined local variable or method `b' for #<Object:0x40181ce0>
  (irb):7:in `irb_binding'
  irb(main):008:0> b = 6 if false
  nil
  irb(main):009:0> b
  nil

whereas I was expecting another "undefined local variable" error.

I agree with Kevin... I expected "if" to behave the same way and that
it was a formatting difference. In any event, I avoid games with scoping
rules so I haven't encountered this problem before.

-- 
  steve@deaf.org