> > if you're using the subject as his question, yes, but if you're
> > using
> > his example (below), no.  (i.e. consider the case if kindergarden
> > is -1.)
> 
> You're right.
> 
> I tried the following:
> 
> 
> irb(main):012:0> kindergarden<0 ||=0
> SyntaxError: compile error
> (irb):12: syntax error
> kindergarden<0 ||=0
>                   ^
>    from (irb):12
> 

Well, yeah; that was my point.  =)  His subject asked (or at least
implies) about setting a var if it's not set, for which "||=" is
perfect.  But his example asks about setting something to 0 if it's
not 0 already (< 0, i.e. negative), which is somewhat different.

The code you used in irb doesn't quite make sense.  (To me, anyway,
and evidently to ruby as well.)  "kindergarden<0" is a boolean
expression, not a (var) name.

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