From: David Flanagan <david@...>
Date: 2007-10-16T15:47:34+09:00
Subject: Range.first is incompatible with Enumerable.first

The new Enumerable.first method is a generalization of Array.first to 
work on any Enumerable object.  But it behaves differently than 
Range.first.  There are two incompatibilities:

1) Range.first cannot accept an argument for the number of elements to 
return.

2) Range.first always returns Range.begin, even if the range is empty. 
That it, it is not consistent with Range.each.  The Range 1..0 has no 
elements according to each, but Range.first returns 1.

I just got caught by this incompatability when trying to test 
Enumerable.first(n) using a Range object as the Enumerable I was testing 
on.

I suggest that Range.first be removed, allowing Range objects to use the 
more general (and more correct) Enumerable.first method.  The existing 
behavior is retained in Range.begin, of course.

If that is too radical a change, I suggest that Range.first be extended 
to accept an integer argument.  And in that case, it should delegate to 
Enumerable.first. That is, even if (1..0).first continues to return 1, 
(1..0).first(1) should correctly return [].

Matz: I'll submit a patch if you chose one of these options and give me 
the go-ahead.

	David