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Hello everyone,

I found the following ruby idiom in "The Ruby Way":

x = 0

1.times {
x = 1
puts x
}

puts x

prints:
1
0

essentialy this trick creates a new scope. Is there a more elegant
way to do it?
George Moschovitis

ps: The Ruby Way is a very nice book!

On 2004-09-08, George Moschovitis <> wrote:
>
> x = 0
>
> 1.times {
> x = 1
> puts x
> }
>
> puts x
>
> prints:
> 1
> 0

If I do this on my machine, it prints 1 and 1.

What version of Ruby have you installed? I have the version 1.8.1
and it works as advertised in the book "Programming Ruby" (chapter
"The Ruby Language"):
"If instead a variable of the same name is already established at the
time the block executes, the block will inherit this variable."

Your 1.times block inherits the x variable and modifies it (or maybe
it's time for me to compile Ruby version 1.8.2?)

--
Olivier D.

On Sep 8, 2004, at 2:00 AM, Olivier D. wrote:

> On 2004-09-08, George Moschovitis <>
> wrote:
>>
>> x = 0
>>
>> 1.times {
>> x = 1
>> puts x
>> }
>>
>> puts x
>>
>> prints:
>> 1
>> 0
>
> If I do this on my machine, it prints 1 and 1.
>
> What version of Ruby have you installed? I have the version 1.8.1
> and it works as advertised in the book "Programming Ruby" (chapter
> "The Ruby Language"):
> "If instead a variable of the same name is already established at the
> time the block executes, the block will inherit this variable."
>
> Your 1.times block inherits the x variable and modifies it (or maybe
> it's time for me to compile Ruby version 1.8.2?)

Currently, creating the variable beforehand *ensures* that it will be
inherited into the block. So, currently, this code snippet should print
1 and 1. I tested it on a 1.9 snapshot ( a few months old, granted),
and the old 1.6.7 that's installed on one of my machines, and they both
print 1 and 1.

IIUC, in the future, *all* variables will leak out, except those in
argument lists. So still, that wouldn't change the behavior of this
code snippet.

In the future, I believe you will be able to get this effect this way:

x = 0

1.times do |x|
x = 23
puts x #=> prints "23"
end

puts x #=> prints "0"

If I am wrong, someone please correct me

cheers,
Mark


> --
> Olivier D.

Mark Hubbart wrote:

> IIUC, in the future, *all* variables will leak out, except those in
> argument lists. So still, that wouldn't change the behavior of this code
> snippet.
> In the future, I believe you will be able to get this effect this way:

I think there's also going to be a local-method. Like this:

x = 1
local do |x|
x = 23
p x # => 23
end
p x # => 1

> cheers,
> Mark

Regards,
Florian Gross