From: "David A. Black" <dblack@...>
Date: 2004-02-26T02:58:00+09:00
Subject: Re: Operators +, += and = in Ruby 2

Hi --

On Thu, 26 Feb 2004, Robert Klemme wrote:

> 
> Hi all,
> 
> this occurred to me some days ago and I'd like to hear what others think.
> 
> Operator += can't be user defined but instead is extended to a combination
> of "+" and assignment:
> "x += y" becomes implicitely "x = x + y".
> 
> Now, wouldn't it be better to turn that around and have people define
> operator += and automatically convert operator + like in:
> 
> "x + y" becomes implicitely "x.dup += y"
> 
> The reason I'm offering this is performance: "x = x + y" is slower than an
> inplace manipulation (that += would do), which is often what's desired
> here.

But wouldn't calling dup be slower than not calling dup?

x,y = "a", "b"
z = x + y
# vs.
z = x.dup + y


David

-- 
David A. Black
dblack@wobblini.net