Le dimanche 25 fñ×rier 2007 03:15, S. Robert James a ñÄrit
> Thanks for the excellent explanation and code.
>
> One question I have is: why is each_cons inconsistent vis-a-vis
> each_slice?  each_slice returns the trailing items, padded with nils -
> why doesn't each cons do the same?
>

Hmm, are you sure of that ? The last object yielded by each_slice is an array 
containing the trailling items, but not padded with nils :

irb(main):004:0> (1..10).each_cons(3) {|i| p i}
[1, 2, 3]
[2, 3, 4]
[3, 4, 5]
[4, 5, 6]
[5, 6, 7]
[6, 7, 8]
[7, 8, 9]
[8, 9, 10]
=> nil
irb(main):005:0> (1..10).each_slice(3) {|i| p i}
[1, 2, 3]
[4, 5, 6]
[7, 8, 9]
[10]
=> nil

Of course, if you try to access the elements of the array individually, you 
will get the default value for the "empty" indices : nil.

irb(main):006:0> (1..10).each_slice(3) {|i| p [i[0], i[1], i[2]]}
[1, 2, 3]
[4, 5, 6]
[7, 8, 9]
[10, nil, nil]
=> nil

There's no inconsistency, then.

I hope I answered your question :)

-- 
Olivier Renaud