String>>withUnixLineEndings shouldn't modify the the original string

[tinchodias]

Ronie Salgado reported this issue in pharo-dev mailing list 10 days ago:

Hi,

I just noticed that String >> withUnixLineEndings modifies the the original string, at least when the string only has cr, and not crlf. For example, try the following (in Pharo 7) in a Playground:

original :='asa' , String cr , 'asa'. newString := original withUnixLineEndings. original at: 4.

Best regards, Ronie

[aranega]

@tinchodias we checked very quickly, and we are not sure of what should be the behavior of the #withUnixLineEnding method. Indeed, currently, the modification is made in-place, but there's nothing in the documentation of the method that states it should not. What would be the right behavior for this method?

[tinchodias]

Hi @aranega, thanks for answering.

I checked briefly if there was something in Pharo with Style to reference but didn't find it quickly.

One concrete argument is that other selectors that begin with with don't mutate self. At least, when I briefly inspected in Pharo 8 didn't find any (I usedSystemNavigation default allMethods select: [ :each | each selector beginsWith: 'with' ]).

Trying to be less concrete (more abstract), I guess the rule is that methods that begin with prepositions don't mutate. Often mutators without arguments begin with 'be', for example ZnClient>>beBinary, and actually don't remember other beginnings for this case.

So... I'd propose to either rename to beUnixLineEndings or to make withUnixLineEnding answer a new string. I vote for 2nd one.

[tinchodias]

@ronsaldo

[ronsaldo]

I also vote for the copying behavior. For me it makes more sense.

[svenvc]

I vote for the second option

withXYZ: should copy

[stale[bot]]

To limit bug bankruptcy (see https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2012/07/09/software-inventory/) this issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had any activity in 6 months. It will be closed in 1 month if no further activity occurs. If this issue remains important to you, please comment to reactivate the issue. Thank you for your contributions.

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