Hello sir Hal (aka Hal E. Fulton [mailto:hal9000@hypermetrics.com]):
You replied last Monday, December 09, 2002 10:31 AM:
I think that the operation “concatenation” can be
viewed in two ways.The first (as I would tend to view it) is a simple
operation that takes two operands and gives a result
(same as +).The other is an operation on a certain object (like
append). This is how String#concat works; it is an
append operation.Note that this is almost as much as question of English
usage (IMO) as of computer science.If strings were immutable, there would be no question
of what is meant here; but they are mutable.As for avoiding the “!” methods… I wouldn’t suggest
that. Do what works for you, but I would suggest just
learning the two ways of thinking and using each when
appropriate. I.e., “Should I modify the original object or
make a new one?”
Thanks, sir Hal. When I’m as good as you, I’ll think I’ll do that, but in
the meantime, I’ll used the “+” method and combine it w assignment/reference
“=” op to achieve modification if necessary.
Just my thoughts.
Hal
Enlightening indeed.
Many thanks, sir Hal.
Kind regards,
-botp