``Making assignment and declaration two different "things" is a huge mistake. [...] As an existence proof, Ruby gets along just fine without it.'' -- jashkenas
http://web.archive.org/web/20080723131545/http://wiki.rubygarden.org/Ruby/page/show/LocalVariablesAndBlocks#currentbehavior
``[...] I needed block local variables, so I made the
current local variable scoping rule, which is "when a new local
variable appears first in a block, it is valid only in the block".
And *I was wrong*. This rule is the single biggest design flaw in Ruby. You have to care about local variable name conflict, and you will have totally different result (without error) if they conflict.
So, we are talking about a part of many-year-long effort of fixing this flaw.'' -- matz
oops