True, however the stated goal here was to replicate the Ruby example more-or-less as-is. Which means building something elegant and then greenspunning cruft on

True, however the stated goal here was to replicate the Ruby example more-or-less as-is. Which means building something elegant and then greenspunning cruft on top of it :-) Your comment highlights how simple things we take for granted as basic ideas (like if statements) may not be as axiomatic as we assume.