Asp Forum - Re: Dir.bitbucket?

Logan Capaldo

8/23/2006 2:57:00 AM

On Aug 22, 2006, at 10:37 PM, John Johnson wrote:

> On Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:44:42 -0400, Logan Capaldo
> <logancapaldo@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> On Aug 22, 2006, at 1:36 PM, John Johnson wrote:
>>> How about:
>>>
>>> oblivion = File.open(nil, 'w')
>>>
>>> Seems intuitive.
>>>
>>
>> For what definition of intuitive? nil is not a path, it's not even
>> a string that could represent a path.
>
> Exactly.
>
> What happens when you write to a nil file? Nothing.
>
You get an exception when you write to a nil file in ruby.
>> file = nil
=> nil
>> file.write "Whee"
NoMethodError: undefined method `write' for nil:NilClass
from (irb):2

Which is as it should be.

> Where does the stuff go? Nowhere.
>
nil is not a file. It is also not "nowhere". (If it was nowhere, it
would probably behave a bit more like Objective-C's nil). Even if it
was nowhere, we would have all sorts of fun tracking down bugs where
we meant to open a file ( a real file ) and forgot to check for nil
earlier in the code. Our output would unintentionally disappear never
to be seen again. Also the docs would be especially fun, "File.open
takes a path to file and a mode, well sometimes it takes nil, which
means open the platform specific 'bitbucket'".

Repurposing nil for this is not a good idea IMO. It reminds me of
perl where writing to unopened file handles silently throws data away.

> Oh yeah, it also doesn't have to be translated into 150 languages
> like 'bit bucket' would.
>
"bit bucket" is not the only possible name for this.
> Regards,
> JJ
>
>
> --
> Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera...
>
>

1 Answer

Trans

8/23/2006 7:16:00 PM

Logan Capaldo wrote:

> "bit bucket" is not the only possible name for this.

Yea, I'm thinking a good name would be "bitchbucket" ;-)

T.

comp.lang.ruby

Re: Dir.bitbucket?

Logan Capaldo

Trans

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