From: Austin Ziegler <halostatue@...>
Date: 2005-03-16T00:27:22+09:00
Subject: Re: Advice on PDF::Writer

On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 23:02:23 +0900, gabriele renzi
<surrender_it@remove-yahoo.it> wrote:
> Austin Ziegler ha scritto:
>> Hi, folks. I'm in the middle of a major overhaul to PDF::Writer.
>> The API is changing significantly. Here are a couple of changes:
>> 
>>    # Set the stroke style. Assume a PDF object instance.
>>  pdf.set_stroke_style(5, :round, :bevel, [3, 5], 1)
>>    # becomes
>>  PDF::Writer::StrokeStyle.new(5) do |ss|
>>    ss.cap  = :round
>>    ss.join = :bevel
>>    ss.dash = { :pattern => [ 3, 5 ], :phase => 1 }
>>    pdf.stroke_style ss
>>  end
> question: why this is not:
> pdf.stroke_style = ss
> (this is a question valid for a lot of examples you just showed)
> 
> It seem to me that your convention would make sense in the case
> you used a TkRuby-like approach by doing initialization with an
> instance-evaled block, but looking at the StrokeStyle
> initialization above it does not seem so.

This is partially because of internal implementation issues. The
table code draws lines around tables:

  stroke_style StrokeStyle.new(options[:inner_line])

If I used the assignment form, I would need:

  self.stroke_style = StrokeStyle.new(options[:inner_line])

I have also been debating switching from the yield form to the
instance_eval form, but I am undecided as yet. It will not make a
significant difference in the code as I've written it; mostly it
will be a difference in documentation.

-austin
-- 
Austin Ziegler * halostatue@gmail.com
               * Alternate: austin@halostatue.ca