From: Ross Bamford <rosco@...>
Date: 2005-11-26T23:57:28+09:00
Subject: Nubish questions about syntax and gems

Hi folks.

I'm getting on really well with Ruby (I've not enjoyed programming this  
much for ages :)) but I've a few (probably simple) questions I'm hoping  
you might be able to help with.

1) Is this the right way to define a method with a dynamic name?

		eval <<-EOC
		  def #{method_name}
		    'You called #{method_name}'
		  end
		EOC

it seems to(?) work, but I wonder if theres a better way?

2) I'm struggling with boolean attributes, and question marks.  
attr_accessor (etc) won't allow me to pass those names in (I guess because  
they're illegal instance var names). I tried:

	attr_accessor :is_green
	alias is_green? is_green

which works, but again it strikes me theres probably a better way that  
I've missed.

3) Does this

	class MyClass
	  @field = "one"
       end

create a class or instance variable? And from that, does

	class MyClass
	  @@field = "one"
  	end

create a class variable on MyClass, Class, or something else? I've tried a  
few experiments and am more confused than when I started :)	

4) And finally, not exactly a Ruby question, but relevant here I hope?  
With a RubyGem, is it possible to install additional files besides  
binaries? I'd like to install some manpages along with libs and bin. I  
considered misusing the C extension build, but I don't know if it'd work  
and it seems a bit nasty...

Thanks in advance!

-- 
Ross Bamford - rosco@roscopeco.remove.co.uk