On 2009-11-04, RichardOnRails <RichardDummyMailbox58407 / USComputerGurus.com> wrote:
> I grateful for you taking the time to identify my deficiencies.

I'd call it an oversight, not a personal failing.

It might make sense to want to be able to do
	def pp()
	  old = self
	  self = self + 1
	  old
	end

or something similar, but it's not well-defined.  The problem is that
fundamentally, when you have two variables, a and b, which both contain
the object 1 (a Fixnum), there's no way to say "I want the object a points
to to change, but not the object b points to" *in a method call*.  Because
the method call works on the object, not the variable.

-s
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