No increment operator (++) in Ruby? [duplicate]

Ruby has no pre/post increment/decrement operator. For instance, x++ or x-- will fail to parse. More importantly, ++x or --x will do nothing! In fact, they behave as multiple unary prefix operators: -x == ---x == -----x == ...... To increment a number, simply write x += 1.

Taken from "Things That Newcomers to Ruby Should Know" (archive, mirror)

That explains it better than I ever could.

EDIT: and the reason from the language author himself (source):

1. ++ and -- are NOT reserved operator in Ruby.
2. C's increment/decrement operators are in fact hidden assignment. They affect variables, not objects. You cannot accomplish assignment via method. Ruby uses +=/-= operator instead.
3. self cannot be a target of assignment. In addition, altering the value of integer 1 might cause severe confusion throughout the program.

From a posting by Matz:

(1) ++ and -- are NOT reserved operator in Ruby.

(2) C's increment/decrement operators are in fact hidden assignment. They affect variables, not objects. You cannot accomplish assignment via method. Ruby uses +=/-= operator instead.

(3) self cannot be a target of assignment. In addition, altering the value of integer 1 might cause severe confusion throughout the program.

                      matz.

I don't think that notation is available because—unlike say PHP or C—everything in Ruby is an object.

Sure you could use $var=0; $var++ in PHP, but that's because it's a variable and not an object. Therefore, $var = new stdClass(); $var++ would probably throw an error.

I'm not a Ruby or RoR programmer, so I'm sure someone can verify the above or rectify it if it's inaccurate.