Here's another fun thing in Ruby:

    irb(main):001:0> x = true or "hi"
    => true
    irb(main):002:0> x
    => true
    irb(main):003:0> x = false or "hi"
    => "hi"
    irb(main):004:0> x
    => false

What? Short-circuit evaluation doesn't work in an assignment..? Oh.

    irb(main):005:0> x = (false or "hi")
    => "hi"
    irb(main):006:0> x
    => "hi"

In fairness, the || operator does not require explicit parentheses — but I still hold that operator precedence is just evil.

Yes, thats surprising behavior. Fortunately its fixed in 1.9. :)

Spoiler alert:

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.

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1.8.x produces 3 while 1.9 produces :foo

Sometimes I wonder whether I should really try Ruby, but brainfarts like these always remind me why I decided against it the last time.

All I can see is that this code makes no sense whatsoever to me. I guess that means that Ruby is not for me...