On Jan 8, 2005, at 9:53 PM, Trevor Andrade wrote:
> I think was a bit ambiguous in my email so let me make myself clear.  
> The
> term multiple assignment is used in two situation or at least I use it 
> in
> two situations.  In one situation a variable is assigned to and then
> assigned to again.  In the other situation, two variable are assigned 
> to at
> the same time.  Both these situations are called multiple assignment.  
> I am
> referring to the first situation.  I believe you are referring to the
> second.  I have no problem with the second situation.  It is the first 
> that
> I believe is unnecessary.  Unless I am missing something and the two 
> kinds
> of multiple assignment are some how related.

i can't really explain.
but it just feels right.
maybe the ruth/ast will help u see why:
	irb(main):003:0> Ruby.parse 'def mult_ret; return 1, 5; end'
     => Def[:mult_ret, [], Return[ArrayLiteral[[IntegerLiteral[1], 
IntegerLiteral[5]]]]]
and
	irb(main):007:0> Ruby.parse 'a, b = nil, nil'
=> Masgn[ArrayLiteral[[LocalAssign[:a, nil], LocalAssign[:b, nil]]], 
nil, ArrayLiteral[[NilLiteral[], NilLiteral[]]]]
(notice the use of ArrayLiteral as return and ArrayLiteral in 
multi-assign)

for a more concrete and useful example.
consider this:
	a, b = b, a

Alex