> -----Original Message-----
> From: bascule / gmail.com [mailto:bascule / gmail.com] On Behalf Of Tony
> Arcieri
> wrote:
> I think you're missing why ++ could be useful, and it's precisely
> because
> Ruby is a "21st century language"
> 
> The ++ operator, far more than just being syntactic sugar for +=1,
> would
> allow you to send an "increment" message to any object, which would
> change
> its value in place, i.e.
> 
>   def ++
>     incrementing_logic_goes_here
>   end
> 
> I could see this as being handy 

But you already can with the mechanics of the language that are already
present!

irb(main):003:0> i=15
=> 15
irb(main):004:0> i=i.succ
=> 16
irb(main):005:0> i="15"
=> "15"
irb(main):006:0> i=i.succ
=> "16"
irb(main):007:0> i=1.2
=> 1.2
irb(main):008:0> i=i.succ
NoMethodError: undefined method `succ' for 1.2:Float
        from (irb):8
        from /usr/local/bin/irb:12:in `<main>'

In an object that it makes sense to increment, define the #succ method!
It's that easy!