From: Stefan Lang <langstefan@...>
Date: 2005-10-30T01:32:43+09:00
Subject: Re: "Readability" inflation

On Saturday 29 October 2005 18:00, Brian Schr�der wrote:
> On 29/10/05, Trans <transfire@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Brian Schr�der wrote:
> > > If you are so bold, I have to chime in again to say that
> > >
> > >   ary.sort_by :meth
> > >
> > > reads a lot better than
> > >
> > >   ary.sort_by.meth
> > >
> > > because we don't do method chaining here.
> > >
> > > Sorry, could not resist. ;-)
> >
> > Ahhhhh... but can you do:
> >
> >    ary.sort_by.meth(foo, bar, wack!)
> >
> > T.
>
> And what does that mean and how often do I need it?

Perhaps he means something like:

% cat sort_by.rb
module Enumerable
    alias _core_sort_by sort_by
    def sort_by(*args, &block)
        if args.empty?
            _core_sort_by(&block)
        else
            _core_sort_by { |a| a.__send__(*args, &block) }
        end
    end
end

if $0 == __FILE__
    class Factor
        attr_reader :number
        def initialize(number)
            @number = number
        end
        def apply_to(other_number)
            @number * other_number
        end
    end
    list = [Factor.new(-2), Factor.new(3)]
    p list.sort_by(:number)
    p list.sort_by(:apply_to, -1)
end
% ruby sort_by.rb
[#<Factor:0x401c0520 @number=-2>, #<Factor:0x401c050c @number=3>]
[#<Factor:0x401c050c @number=3>, #<Factor:0x401c0520 @number=-2>]

-- 
Stefan