----- Original Message -----
From: "Barry Shultz" <barry_sh / hotmail.com>
To: "ruby-talk ML" <ruby-talk / ruby-lang.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 06, 2003 3:10 AM
Subject: Re: empty Array returned but expect nil


> Hi,
>
> >|Could someone please explain what I am (obviously) missing here?
> >
> >Because [5,0] is out of array boundary.
> >
> > matz.
>
> But a[4] = nil ( it's a 4-element Array), so isn't a[4,0] also out of the
> boundary?

Yes, but 5 is RIGHT out. ;)

> Sorry if I'm being thick here.

I don't think you're being thick... it's one of
those "gotchas" in my opinion.

The explanation (which I can't recall or repeat)
has to do with imagining that there is a "cursor"
that doesn't point AT array elements, but at the
points IN BETWEEN them. (I seem to recall that
Emacs encourages this kind of thinking.)

Someone else can explain better.

Hal