Notes posted by jrochkind

1.9 behavior

“In Ruby 1.9 and newer mb_chars returns self’”

This would seem to be a lie. At least in rails 3.1.0 and ruby 1.9.2, mb_chars still returns a proxy object with additional useful methods defined on it that aren’t on a 1.9.2 String.

ruby-1.9.2-p180 :007 >  "àáâãäå".normalize(:kd)
NoMethodError: undefined method `normalize' for "àáâãäå":String

ruby-1.9.2-p180 :008 > "àáâãäå".mb_chars.normalize(:kd)
 => àáâãäå

beware of trying to dup in subclass inside class context

The example of adding to an array without effecting superclass:

# Use setters to not propagate changes:
Base.setting = []
Subclass.setting += [:foo]

That’s right as far as it goes. But beware when you are in context of class definition:

class Subclass < Base
   # possibly wrong, ruby seems to get 
   # confused and think you mean a local 
   # var, not the class ivar
   setting += [:foo]

   # But this will work:
   self.setting += [:foo]

   # Or:
   self.setting = self.setting.dup
   self.setting << :foo

   [...]
end