Why Ruby?

[Jacob Carlborg]

On 2010-12-15 23:33, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> On 12/15/10 4:18 PM, retard wrote:
>> Wed, 15 Dec 2010 22:23:35 +0100, Jacob Carlborg wrote:
>>> Array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5).sortWith(_> _)
>>
>> The first instance of _ (from left to right) is replaced with the first
>> element of the parameter tuple, the second with second element, etc.
>>
>> This is actually very useful since many lambdas only use 1-2 parameters.
>> It has its limitations. For example referring to the same parameter
>> requires a named parameter or some other hack. Combined with Haskell
>> style partial application this allows stuff like:
>>
>> Array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5).foreach { println }
>>
>> Array(1, 2, 3, 4, 5).filter(2<)
>
> For short lambdas I prefer Phobos' convention of using "a" and "b", e.g.
> "2 < a" or "a < b". Since it's a string, "_ < _" would have been usable
> with Phobos too but I wouldn't like such a change.
>
> Andrei

The point here isn't that we want "a" and "b" to be replaced with "_" 
the point is that we want to get rid of the string and have a shorter 
and less verbose syntax for delegate literals.

-- 
/Jacob Carlborg