From: pat eyler <pat.eyler@...>
Date: 2005-05-25T06:24:34+09:00
Subject: Re: new article

On 5/24/05, Brian Schr�der <ruby.brian@gmail.com> wrote:
> Just started with your article, and I wonder why you build a
> constructor that tests for object classes, why not simply call .to_s
> on the argument?

I wrote it that way to create some (artificial, but easy to see) 
boundary conditions for the article, this test doesn't actually 
show up in the released versions of r43.  It would have been
better to be able to verify the format of the id strings, but I
wasn't able to find that kind of information about them.

Actually testing it the way I did was a bit of a stretch.  In the case 
of the test key '1234' you could have a Numeric, but the real keys 
all seem to be alphanumeric.  It's certainly possible to create an
Array that would be stringified into a valid key as well, e.g.
["1", "2", "3", "4"].  

> 
> class T
>  attr_reader :key
> 
>  def initialize(key)
>    @key = key.to_s
>   end
> en
> 
> [T.new(1).key, T.new("1").key, T.new([1]).key]  => ["1", "1", "1"]
> 
> best regards,
> 
> Brian
> 
> --
> http://ruby.brian-schroeder.de/
> 
> Stringed instrument chords: http://chordlist.brian-schroeder.de/
> 
> 


-- 
thanks,
-pate
-------------------------
We are often unable to tell people what they need to know, because
they want to know something else, and would therefore only
misunderstand what we said
- the Raven   (George MacDonald, Lilith)