From: Kristof Bastiaensen <kristof@...>
Date: 2004-04-27T08:54:08+09:00
Subject: Re: Semantics of Multiple Values

Hi,
this looks very interesting.  I particulary like the hash
passing mechanism. I will add it to my RCR.  It would
then work also inside method definitions:

def params({:this => a, :that => b})
  [a, b]
end
params( {:this => 1, :that => 2, :dummy => 3} )
=> [1, 2]

Maybe it would be too hard to implement, or decrease 
performance, but that is not for me to decide!

> Examples of possible rules:
> 
> {:a=>a, :b=>b} = f(x)
> # provided f(x) returns hash, h
> # h[:a] and h[:b] assigned to a, b
> 
> y.a = f(x)
> # provided f(x) returns object x with accessor a
> # assign x.a to y.a
> 

This wouldn't work, because y.a = f(x) is already
valid syntax, meaning call y.a= with the value of
f(x)

> y.a, y.b = f(x)
> # provided f(x) returns object x with accessors a, b
> # assign x.a, x,b to y.a, y.b
> 

Neither does this, because it would mean pass the multiple
values from f(x) to the methods y.a= and y.b=