Selected checkboxes and val()

Selected checkboxes and val()


This might be a dead horse, but wanted to re-ask the question:
Why does calling val() on a group of selected checkboxes (same name
attribute - if it matters) not return an array of values?
Example:
http://www.ericmmartin.com/code/jquery/checkbox.html
I see that there is code to handle a multiple select. Also, I know
that Mike's form plugin can return the array, but I'd think this
"feature" would be part of the core.
Thoughts?