On Dec 31, 2011, at 3:32 AM, Brian Ford wrote:
> ----------------------------------------
> Bug #5830: "".byteslice(0) != "".byteslice(0, 0)
> https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/5830
> [...]
> Is this a bug?
> 
> See https://github.com/ruby/ruby/blob/069f7ec90a6ef/string.c#L4091 vs https://github.com/ruby/ruby/blob/069f7ec90a6ef/string.c#L4035-4036

This post might help explain the rationale: <http://code.activestate.com/lists/ruby-talk/13724/>