hi here I am again;)

my original (simplified question was): Why Nil#to_i and not Nil#split.
Generally why X#a and not X#b?

Well that's pretty much all, actually there are quite some ways to
look at this, but I shall learn and not teach, so I will just be
silent for once;)

All comments are appreciated.

Robert
-- 
I always knew that one day Smalltalk would replace Java.
I just didn't know it would be called Ruby
-- Kent Beck