From: Paul Pladijs <ppladijs@...>
Date: 2001-03-18T06:41:15+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:12790] Re: FEATURE REQUEST: 'my' local variables


Hal E. Fulton wrote:
>From: Doug Edmunds <dae_alt3@juno.com>
>> I an new to Ruby, but there seems to be something
>> quite wrong with temporary variables inside blocks
>> having any impact outside the block.
>
>That's like asking, "Have you quit beating your wife?"
>
>The fact is these aren't temporary variables. They might look like them;
>some might assume they are; they might sometimes behave as such;
>but they aren't. Some might even argue they should be; but they aren't.
>
>On the other hand, I sympathize with you. The behavior in this case is
>a little surprising and hard to get used to. The rule I follow for now
is:
>Don't name a block parameter the same as  an existing variable unless
>there is actually a reason to do so.

I use two rules to avoid this kind of problems:
- using longer (and meaningfull) names for none-iterator
  variables, and very short names like x, a, e, f
  for iterator variables.
- whenever the code in a method becomes to long, refactor
  the long method to two or more shorter methods.
  

Regards,
Paul.