Messages to nil

> Just curious: would it be worth petitioning the Power That Be for a global
> switch that induced that kind of behavior in nil? Would there be any
> catastrophic consequences? (Please be gentle; I still have only the
> faintest clue what I'm doing with Ruby, except enjoying it a great deal...)

> Hi,
>
> One of the things I got accustomed to in Objective C was nil's behavior

> universal message sink: You could send nil anything, and you'd get nil
> back.
>
> No big deal, really, except that it made message cascades (which in Ruby
> would look like Java- or OGNL-style keypaths) a bit easier to code,

> having to stop off at every point in the path and use an if-statement to

> if there was a real object still listening. When I switched over to
> predominately using Java a few years back, it took me a couple of

> days to change that habit (not to mention remembering to use "null"
> instead...literally the most besetting annoyance I inflicted on myself

> trying to learn Java).
>
> Just curious: would it be worth petitioning the Power That Be for a

> switch that induced that kind of behavior in nil? Would there be any
> catastrophic consequences? (Please be gentle; I still have only the
> faintest clue what I'm doing with Ruby, except enjoying it a great

>
> def nil.method_missing(*args) nil end
>
> do what you want?
>
> Reimer Behrends