From: matz@... (Yukihiro Matsumoto)
Date: 2003-11-19T23:10:18+09:00
Subject: Re: Again, Rite explanation needed  (keyword args and new hash syntax)

Hi,

In message "Re: Again, Rite explanation needed  (keyword args and new hash syntax)"
    on 03/11/19, Greg McIntyre <greg@puyo.cjb.net> writes:

|Thanks for clearing that up! Is there some reason why you chose
|double asterisks (**)? Are we running out of punctuation? :) To me it
|seems a little too much like the * operator repeated.

It's borrowed from Python, to show we have no prejudice for it.

|Isn't there a more natural syntax? Hmm...
|
|  def f(a, b, [arguments])
|    # arguments is an Array
|  end
|  f(a, b, 1, 2, 3)
|  f(a, b, [1, 2, 3].arguments) # => f(a,b,1,2,3)
|
|  def f(a, b, {keywords})
|    # keywords is a Hash
|  end
|  f(a, b, x:10, y:20)
|  f(a, b, {:x => 10}.keywords) # => f(a,b,x:10)
|
|What do people think? I know * is borrowed from somewhere but it's not
|very intuitive. As a university tutor, students always point at it and
|say, "What's *that* do?"

I am not full against the idea, but I don't think it's worth enough
for incompatibility.  Students are easy to remember once they're told,
they are not THAT stupid (I hope).

							matz.