From: Rasputin <rasputin@...>
Date: 2003-09-03T08:34:45+09:00
Subject: Re: Python vs. Ruby

* james_b <james_b@neurogami.com> [0908 20:08]:
> Sean O'Dell wrote:
> "
> >
> >So, in my line of thinking: me.eat(food)
> >"Hello world".print to me equates to: food.eat.
> >
> >I eat.  Food doesn't eat.  $stdout prints.  Strings don't print.
> 
> Isn't this begging the question?
> 
> The argument seems to be, "print has been defined for $stdout, not 
> string; since strings don't have 'print', string.print would not be not 
> correct."

Think of it this way.

When I want a speech synthesis feature added
to my application, do I *really* want to add a String#speak
method or a Synthesiser#say method?

What about when I want morse code? Or smoke signals?
Does String need to have a render_as_gif method?

And then when I don't need the morse code functionality, do I just
stop requiring smoky.rb or do I go through and hack the String class?
Don't forget anything else you might want to print - Fixnums, Arrays,
serailised digital representations of Willy Rushton, etc, etc.

Maintenance nightmare.

I did think your hack to add this into String was great though,
so maybe the above problems don't apply with Ruby  :)

Allen Holub is a top author, his 'C Companion' is one of
those books I trawl eBay on a regular basis for. But I think he's
being a touch fundamentalist in this case.

As Malacalypse the Younger would say : 'Death to all fanatics'!

-- 
Rasputin :: Jack of All Trades - Master of Nuns