From: Joe Van Dyk <joevandyk@...>
Date: 2005-12-23T09:16:58+09:00
Subject: Re: correct terminology for a function that yields

On 12/22/05, Edward Faulkner <ef@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 23, 2005 at 09:00:31AM +0900, Joe Van Dyk wrote:
> > def foo
> >   yield
> > end
> >
> > foo do
> >   puts "hey"
> > end
> >
> >
> > What's the correct description of what is going on there?  I've got a
> > function foo.  No arguments, right?  Does it "take a block"?  I know
> > it gives control to the block, but I'm not sure of the correct
> > terminology to use.
>
> It does indeed "take a block".  The block argument is implicit.  You
> could make it explicit if you wanted to:
>
> def foo(&blk)
>     blk.call
> end
>
> In more general terms, any function that takes another function as an
> argument (or returns one as a result) is known as a higher-order
> function.

Ok, thanks.  I'm writing documentation for a domain-specific language
(in Ruby) that I created.  People who use it are probably programmers,
but may not be experienced with Ruby, so I wanted to explain a little
bit about what's going on behind the scenes.