Excerpts from Yukihiro Matsumoto's message of Sun Jun 07 17:07:06 +0300 2009:
> Hi,
> 
> In message "Re: [ruby-core:23743] [Bug #1583] Time + String no Longer Raises
> TypeError?"
>     on Sun, 7 Jun 2009 13:00:26 +0900, Akira Tanaka <redmine / ruby-lang.org> writes:
> 
> |I like to_rat.
> 
> #to_rat alone?  Or along with to_flo, to_comp, to_dec, etc?

Since some of these names will inevitably turn out to be
somewhat hard to decode at first glance, might it be an
option to consider establishing a convention different
from the #to_i => #to_int style and make it #to_i and
#as_i (or #to_int and #as_int) instead?

#to_<typeish> produces a representation of object, as #to_s.
#as_<typeish> "converts" object to type, as #to_str.

In my opinion, the symmetry would be helpful and the two
different prefixes help separate their responsibilities?
Of course, it is a departure from past semi-convention.


Regards,
        Eero

--
Magic is insufficiently advanced technology.