Ruby has no pre/post increment/decrement operator. For instance,
x++orx--will fail to parse. More importantly,++xor--xwill do nothing! In fact, they behave as multiple unary prefix operators:-x == ---x == -----x == ......To increment a number, simply writex += 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):
- ++ and -- are NOT reserved operator in Ruby.
- 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.
- self cannot be a target of assignment. In addition, altering the value of integer 1 might cause severe confusion throughout the program.