Added stringOf to ScalaRunTime.

Fixed deepToString to put spaces after commas 
(like regular Array toString, and List, etc.).  
Fixed all the test cases depending on this.

Fixed the interpreter to keep my mind from wandering.

1 files changed, 19 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/src/library/scala/runtime/ScalaRunTime.scala b/src/library/scala/runtime/ScalaRunTime.scala
index a44046985d..579123c179 100644
--- a/src/library/scala/runtime/ScalaRunTime.scala
+++ b/src/library/scala/runtime/ScalaRunTime.scala
@@ -144,4 +144,23 @@ object ScalaRunTime {
     case x: Array[AnyRef] => new BoxedObjectArray(x)
     case x: BoxedArray => x
   }
+
+  /** Given any Scala value, convert it to a String.
+   *
+   * The primary motivation for this method is to provide a means for
+   * correctly obtaining a String representation of a value, while
+   * avoiding the pitfalls of naïvely calling toString on said value.
+   * In particular, it addresses the fact that (a) toString cannot be
+   * called on null and (b) depending on the apparent type of an
+   * array, toString may or may not print it in a human-readable form.
+   *
+   * @param arg the value to stringify
+   * @return a string representation of <code>arg</code>
+   *
+   */
+  def stringOf(arg : Any): String = arg match {
+    case null => "null"
+    case (arg : AnyRef) if isArray(arg) => boxArray(arg).deepToString
+    case arg => arg.toString
+  }
 }