Hi --

On Tue, 30 Nov 2004, Giulio  Piancastelli wrote:

> Florian Gross wrote:
> 
> > itsme213 wrote:
> > > Are to_s, inspect, etc. defined more-or-less consistently for the
> library
> > > classes? Are they used consistently by the various tools like irb,
> debug,
> > > test/unit, breakpoint, etc?
> >
> > .inspect is usually used for debug purposes and .to_s for end-user
> > purposes.
> 
> So, why does [1,2,3].to_s give '123' and [1,2,3].inspect give '[1, 2,
> 3]' as answers? Not a really end-user answer, the one given by
> Array#to_s, isn't it? The inspect method here is much more end-user
> oriented: why is that?

I think it's probably because the '123' form is conceivably useful
once in a while as a string, whereas '[1,2,3]' probably isn't.  Also,
#inspect sort of has to return something other than '123', so having
#to_s also return that would just duplicate that functionality.  


David

-- 
David A. Black
dblack / wobblini.net