On Dec 28, 2003, at 10:51, Shashank Date wrote:

>
> "Austin Ziegler" <austin / halostatue.ca> wrote in message
>> You can do this with:
>>
>>   @name = (defined? name and name) or "unknown"
>>
>
> "or" has very low precedence, this would be better:
>
>  @name =  ((defined? name and name) or "unknown")

Very true. Some time ago I spent considerable amount of time to finally 
realize that a statement like
@name = (defined? name and name) or "unknown"
is treated in fact as
(@name = (defined? name and name)) or "unknown"

>
>
>
>

Sincerely,
Gennady Bystritsky