> > > There are good and interesting reasons these operators
> > > are not in Ruby... refer to a post long ago by Dave Thomas.
> > > (Sorry I don't have a pointer to it.)
> >
> > I think you mean [ruby-talk:5961].
>
> That's exactly the one, thank you.

I still think it would be worthwile to reserve the ++, -- operators. The
current behaviour is confusing.

Here is how OCaml handles ++, -- (It doesn't, but it does see them as a
lexical elements it doesnt understand).
Note that OCaml and Ruby's problem is the same becuase it's a functional
approach where you don't want to update the underlying value.

Notice how at the end, I succeed in the double negation using x - - x, but
not x -- x.

MikkelFJ

<snip>
# let x = 4
  ;;
val x : int = 4
# let y = ++x;;
Toplevel input:
# let y = ++x;;
          ^^
Syntax error
# let y = +x;;
Toplevel input:
# let y = +x;;
          ^
Syntax error
# let y = --x;;
Toplevel input:
# let y = --x;;
          ^^
Syntax error
# let y = -x;;
val y : int = -4
# let y = x--;;
Toplevel input:
# let y = x--;;
             ^^
Syntax error
# let y = ++x;;
Toplevel input:
# let y = ++x;;
          ^^
Syntax error
# let y = x -- x;;
Toplevel input:
# let y = x -- x;;
            ^^
Unbound value --
# let y = x --x;;
Toplevel input:
# let y = x --x;;
            ^^
Unbound value --
# let y = x - -x;;
val y : int = 8

</snip>