I'm seeing differing behavior on 1.8 and 1.9.  Is this intentional?

cout@bean:~$ ruby -e 'def foo; return *nil; end; p foo'
nil
cout@bean:~$ ruby1.9 -e 'def foo; return *nil; end; p foo'
[]
cout@bean:~$ ruby -e 'p *nil'
nil
cout@bean:~$ ruby1.9 -e 'p *nil'
<sometimes hangs, sometimes returns immediately>

Paul