From: David Alan Black <dblack@...>
Date: 2004-05-09T04:13:57+09:00
Subject: Re: How to get the last 5 elements of an array?

Hi --

Gavin Sinclair <gsinclair@soyabean.com.au> writes:

> For example, consider this:
> 
>   x = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
>   x[-5..3]  # -> nil
> 
> If even *that* returns nil, when *all* numbers in the range are valid
> indexes, then...
> 
> Also, there's everybody's favourite example:
> 
>   x[10..15] # -> []
>   x[11..15] # -> nil
> 
> I'd rather see 'arr[range]' *always* return an array, no matter the
> value of 'arr' and 'range'.

I guess it comes down to the necessity to translate between the very
different perspectives of Arrays and Ranges when it comes to counting.
For example, for a 5-element array, -3 > 1, counting Array-style.  I
don't know whether there's a way to un-anomalize it; it may be one of
these lumps that can be moved around under the carpet but is still
always somewhere.  


David

-- 
David A. Black
dblack@wobblini.net