# Programming Ruby p103 (Pragmatic Programmer)

**URL:** <https://rubytalk.org/t/programming-ruby-p103-pragmatic-programmer/2031>\
**Category:** ruby-talk\
**Created:** [27 September 2002 19:23 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/programming-ruby-p103-pragmatic-programmer/2031 "2002-09-27T19:23:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Dale\_Martenson1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@Dale\_Martenson1](https://rubytalk.org/u/Dale_Martenson1)\
**Post date:** [27 September 2002 19:23 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/programming-ruby-p103-pragmatic-programmer/2031/1 "2002-09-27T19:23:20Z")

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Matz wrote in post 51530 (“Where Is Method Call Precedence?”) that the dot  
is the strongest operator. To me that means that 1.6.7 parsing is wrong and  
1.7.2 parsing of the expression is correct.

It is very surprising to me that this would require parenthesis.

> **···**
>
> Kent Dahl wrote on Friday, September 27, 2002 1:44 PM \> Dale Martenson wrote:
> 
> > > puts (1…4).sum
> > > 
> > > This seems to work with Ruby version 1.7.2 (Windows),
> > 
> > But should give warning with -w, IIRC:  
> > warning: (…) interpreted as grouped expression
> > 
> > > but not with version  
> > > 1.6.7 (Cygwin).
> > 
> > Old parsing of the above code is as:  
> > (puts (1…4)).sum
> > 
> > Either way, puts (anything).anything\_else is a bad idea in general.  
> > Put the parenthesis in explicity.