From: Daniel Schierbeck <daniel.schierbeck@...>
Date: 2005-10-29T08:47:04+09:00
Subject: Re: "Readability" inflation

Pete wrote:
>>    pizza = Pizza.new :crust_thickness => :really_thick,
>>                      :toppings => [:pepperoni, :ham]
> 
> 
> looks like a hash, if you ask me...
> 
> so what the extra keyword for ??
> 

In my example, the value :really_thick will be assigned to the method's 
local variable `crust_thickness', and `[:pepperoni, :ham]' to 
`toppings'. Otherwise, you would have to do the following:

   def initialize(opts)
     opts[:crust_thickness] ||= :thin
     @toppings = opts[:toppings]
     @crust_thickness = opts[:crust_thickness]
   end

Which of course would be even more confusing if there were a great many 
keywords.