On Wed, 23 Feb 2005 00:32:02 +0900, Kaspar Schiess <eule / space.ch> wrote: > I can't see why this method should be added to all of Ruby.. it seems to > apply to a special case you need to handle. You know, it is perfectly ok to > change stdlib just for your project... this is what Ruby is about. > > I feel very at home with the distinction between empty and nil that is made > currently. In the case of financial data that may have empty cells I would > propose to add a small class layer between that has an empty? method.. thus > solving the problem in an app specific way and not changing the language. This, or something like it, would be useful for the case where I have to do: foo if bar.nil? or bar.empty? foo(bar) if bar and not bar.empty? It's not common, but it is common enough. I want to sometimes write it as: foo if bar.empty? ...because for the purposes of what I'm doing (I think that this is in Text::Format), +nil+ is as good as empty. -austin -- Austin Ziegler * halostatue / gmail.com * Alternate: austin / halostatue.ca