Feature #8016
open
Alias __FILE__ and __LINE__ as methods
Description
=begin
All of the previous issues discussing the new (({Kernel#dir})) method (#1961, #3346, #7975), never came to any conclusion regarding the naming inconsistency between the likes of (({dir})) and (({method})), and the keywords (({FILE})) and (({LINE})).
Should we not add (({file})) and (({line})) as methods also, and perhaps deprecate the keywords (({FILE})) and (({LINE})). This would keep it consistant with all the other double-underscore methods. To most developers who perhaps do not know Ruby as intricately as most of the people on this issue tracker, the inconsistency between (({dir})) and (({FILE})) is not just confusing by name, but the fact that one is a method and one isn't, is doubly confusing. Definitely not principle of least surprise.
This needs to be addressed in my opinion, either through deprecation of (({FILE})) and (({LINE})), or by keeping those keywords and simply creating Kernel method equivalents for the sake of a consistant API.
While on the topic, someone also suggested in one of those previous issues, to give (({dir})) an optional join argument, so you could do something like this:
__dir__('somefile.txt') # => /Users/admin/somefile.txt
I'd predict that at least 90% of use cases for (({dir})) will involve joining it to another path or filename. I can't see any harm in adding this. The naming inconstancies are my main concern however. This would just be a nice bonus that takes advantage of the fact that (({dir})) is a method rather than a keyword.
=end
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