From: Kristof Bastiaensen <kristof@...>
Date: 2004-05-01T21:34:02+09:00
Subject: Re: def [](v) xx; return yy; end # returned value is ignored !?

Hi,

On Sat, 01 May 2004 21:07:57 +0900, Jean-Hugues ROBERT wrote:
>>It may be interesting to be able to access variables indirectly
>>using binding() (outside eval).
>>for example:
>>
>>a = 2
>>binding().local_get(:a)
>>=> a == 2
> 
> You can !
> eval( :a, binding()) ?
> 

I would rather get rid of the eval, because eval
has to recompile the statement, and I have the feeling it
is not really part of the language (it is more like
the language itself).  From the point of a byte-code
interpreter, the eval statement doesn't generate a
bytecode, but will call a method that will do so.

>>binding().local_set!(:a, 5)
>>=> a == 5
> 
> eval( "a = 5") or
> tmp = arbitrary_expr; eval( "a=tmp", binding())

The behaviour would be different if a is not set.
Eval would raise an error, while local_get(:a)
would just return nil.