R
Ryan Pavlik
OK so it's late, I'm not thinking straight, and I thought I'd post
this.
Proposal for a new operator - .=
================================
Ruby has a number of useful operators, including some for combined
operation/assignment, such as +=, -=, etc.
This proposal is for a new operation/assignment operator, .=
(period-equals). Existing operators follow this form:
a += b # => a = a + b
a -= b # => a = a - b
The proposed .= operator would follow in an identical fashion:
a .= b # => a = a.b
For instance, some practical applications:
# We're passed an object, we want to do work on it
def foo(x)
x .= dup
:
end
# We have an operation for which there is no bang! method:
hash .= invert
# Similar to the last, we have an object which a bang method
# is impossible:
i = 5
i .= succ # => 6
# Following from that, we can't really change what an object _is_,
# but with .= we don't need to:
c = 65
c .= chr # => "A"
This has the following important advantages:
* It provides a generic operation/assignment operator
* Much like existing operation/assignment operators, it saves
space and increases readability
* It confuses Perl programmers
Support this new operator for Ruby!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
(The preceding was 90% a joke. I don't actually have any serious
expectation of a .= operator in Ruby. I imagine it would be a bit
hairy to implement. I actually thought of it after doing "s = s.dup"
a few times, and there may be a few good uses for it, but... this was
for entertainment purposes only. ;-)
this.
Proposal for a new operator - .=
================================
Ruby has a number of useful operators, including some for combined
operation/assignment, such as +=, -=, etc.
This proposal is for a new operation/assignment operator, .=
(period-equals). Existing operators follow this form:
a += b # => a = a + b
a -= b # => a = a - b
The proposed .= operator would follow in an identical fashion:
a .= b # => a = a.b
For instance, some practical applications:
# We're passed an object, we want to do work on it
def foo(x)
x .= dup
:
end
# We have an operation for which there is no bang! method:
hash .= invert
# Similar to the last, we have an object which a bang method
# is impossible:
i = 5
i .= succ # => 6
# Following from that, we can't really change what an object _is_,
# but with .= we don't need to:
c = 65
c .= chr # => "A"
This has the following important advantages:
* It provides a generic operation/assignment operator
* Much like existing operation/assignment operators, it saves
space and increases readability
* It confuses Perl programmers
Support this new operator for Ruby!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
(The preceding was 90% a joke. I don't actually have any serious
expectation of a .= operator in Ruby. I imagine it would be a bit
hairy to implement. I actually thought of it after doing "s = s.dup"
a few times, and there may be a few good uses for it, but... this was
for entertainment purposes only. ;-)
)