On 12/14/05, Jeff Wood <jeff.darklight / gmail.com> wrote:
> You should be able to tell who this message is meant for:
>
> PLEASE stop sending out code that uses any of the perl ${x} variables ...
>
> They are ugly and have no place in Ruby ... they are only provided to
> make the transition of Perl people easier ...

Just to add another voice to the maelstrom: I have never coded Perl
and don't particular like it, but I almost always use the $1 variables
in Ruby. I have been coding Ruby for over four years and I rarely find
instances where MatchData is all that much better than =~ and the $1
variables.

They are just more convenient in the typical case:

str="abc"
re=/(.)(.)(.)/

if re =~ str
	p $2
end

# Versus:

if (md = re.match(str))
	p md[2]
end

Ryan