From: David Heinemeier Hansson <david@...>
Date: 2004-07-26T02:10:51+09:00
Subject: Re: rubyonrails and cgikit comparison

> Wouldn't that result in a very long tag, and thus more difficult to 
> read, in a Rails template?
> I don't doubt you can make the same component, if you pass all 
> arguments in the template, it become hard tom read the template. Maybe 
> you can pass all arguments in the code, but then you have to take the 
> discipline to keep all the code in the same place. With bindings, you 
> know exactly where you pass the arguments.

You would use helpers for this stuff. So you could have a generic 
TableHelper and then have your specific EmployeesHelper:

   class TableHelper
     def table(source, options = {})
       # construct an HTML table based on the options
     end
   end

   class EmployeesHelper
     def payroll_table(payroll, additional_options = {})
       options = 
DEFAULT_OPTIONS_FOR_PAYROLL_TABLE.merge(additional_options)
       table(payroll, options)
     end
   end

So the EmployeesHelper is basically just a preconfigured version of the 
generic table. And in the template you'd just have:

   <h2>Employee payroll</h2>
   <%= payroll_table(@payroll) %>

That's pretty clean to me.
--
David Heinemeier Hansson,
http://www.rubyonrails.org/  -- Web-application framework for Ruby
http://www.instiki.org/      -- A No-Step-Three Wiki in Ruby
http://www.basecamphq.com/   -- Web-based Project Management
http://www.loudthinking.com/ -- Broadcasting Brain
http://www.nextangle.com/    -- Development & Consulting Services