On 27 Mar 2000, Dave Thomas wrote:
> 
> > Well, however this issue is resolved, maybe "always use parens" (in
> > the sorts of contexts we have been discussing) should be something
> > that a Ruby "strict mode" should require, and maybe verbose mode
> > should always warn about it.
> 
> FWIW, in the book we're recommending that people use parens, but...
> 
>   p a.zip
> 
> would become
> 
>   p(a.zip())
> 
> Which looks different, and messier, to my eyes.
> 
As a personal rule, i happily avoid parens when the method doesn't require
any argument, and always use them when passing one or more args (except for
builtins such as print).

I adore not to be forced to use parens for no-args methods, because i like
to think there is no real difference in meaning between getting the value
of a variable and calling a no-args method which returns a value, so the
syntax can be the same, too.

Should there ever be a Ruby "strict mode", i sincerely hope it won't 
complain in such cases.

Regards,

-- Mirko Nasato