From: "Ruth A. Kramer" <rhkramer@...>
Date: 2005-02-15T01:07:40+09:00
Subject: Re: Printing why's (poignant) guide to ruby

James Britt wrote:
> Navindra Umanee wrote:
> > If you don't have a clue about the basics like this, you'll soon fail
> > miserably whether you're using Ruby or not.  And come-on, who's going
> > to explain yield and blocks to a newbie?
> 
> It wouldn't be the first, or even the second, thing I would teach, but a
> newbie needs to learn them so as to stop being a newbie.
> 
> I don't think they are as hard to explain as one might think.  (Making
> full use of them is much harder, but getting the essential idea and
> basic syntax and semantics may be pretty straightforward).

Challenge: Well, how about explaining them (or at least blocks)?

If you attempt it, how about explaining blocks from the point of view of
an ex-Algol, Pascal, PL/1 programmer, for whom a block is just a way of
grouping several statements together so they can all be executed as a
result of some "test" (like if then else, while do, etc.).  Is there
something extra or different about a Ruby block?  What?

Enquiring newbies want to know ;-)

Randy Kramer