jrc> This one-liner prints "true":

jrc>   ruby -e "p 'true' if 1 "

jrc> But this does not:
 
jrc>   ruby -e "p 'true' if 1 == true"

jrc> nor this:

jrc>   ruby -e "p 'true' if true == 1"

jrc> Why, exactly, is this?

Because 1 is not *the same* as "true", but "if" statements will execute
for all values other than "nil" and "false", this includes "true" and
anything else (like "1" and even "0" and "" which can bite you coming
from perl...).

-joe