[johnhartigun]

(Using a different account because I got a "you're posting too fast" error.)

It's probably even less readable to be honest. And it would mean there are now 2 ways of doing something which makes the language irregular (unless everyone switches to this syntax).

I would just read it as: "Take str, convert it to an int and take the absolute value." It also corresponds to the order of steps as it actually happens.

Another example where the readability difference is clearer:

`images.first.resize(100, 100).crop(25, 25, 75, 75)`

versus

`crop(resize(first(images), 100, 100), 25, 25, 75, 75)`

The former one isn't just more readable, it's also easier to write.