Re: string.gsub (Lua 5.1.1)

[Shmuel Zeigerman <shmuz@...>]

Nick Gammon wrote:
> > > Probably the manual should be reworded as:
> > > "gsub also returns, as its second value, the total number of matches 
> > > made."
> >
> > But this would be, in fact, an API alteration, and API is not allowed 
> > to change after the Lua version is officially out.
>
> No, that is a clarification of what it currently does. It currently 
> returns the number of times it matched, regardless of what happens when 
> it matches.
>
> Thus, if the API is not allowed to change, the manual rewording is what 
> is required.

API *is* the manual. The manual (not the source code!) is the only 
definitive authority with regards to the API. What you suggest is not 
rewording, it is *change*, since number of matches and number of 
substitutions are totally different things.

--
Shmuel