On Dec 14, 2005, at 6:16 PM, Jeff W. wrote:
You should be able to tell who this message is meant for:
Yes, I recognize that you are probably speaking at least in part to
me, since I did that in this very thread. You can call me by name if
you like. I’m a big boy and I can take it. 
PLEASE stop sending out code that uses any of the perl ${x}
variables …
Hang on there Mr. Code Police. Let’s not lay down the law down too
heavily before we get into this…
They are ugly and have no place in Ruby … they are only provided to
make the transition of Perl people easier …
I seriously doubt those variables were invented in Perl. They are a
common feature to many Regular Expression implementation and I’m not
sure they are even that ugly. $1 holds what was grabbed by the first
set of parenthesis. Fairly logical.
Please teach people to use MatchData objects …
I also showed a MatchData example.
I’ve used them a time or two, but honestly, they just don’t feel
right to me. I’ve stopped using the default variable, I’m using a
two-space tab, etc. I’m Ruby assimilated, but I just like the Regexp-
linked variables.
I see a lot of code running the Ruby Q. and I feel quite confident
saying that the Regexp variables are far more common than MatchData.
I don’t think that says anything bad about the latter, but it does
tell me that you are in the minority. 
We won’t yell at you for using MatchData, if you’ll provide the same
consideration…
James Edward G. II