From: James Edward Gray II <james@...>
Date: 2006-01-06T10:57:13+09:00
Subject: Re: user defined instance variables

On Jan 5, 2006, at 5:35 PM, John Maclean wrote:

> Hey Chaps,
> So far so good. I've a menu as shown below. So far by following the  
> "pick axe" I've been able to "hard code" all of my instance  
> variables. I'd like a user to enter his/her details and let his  
> entry specify that variable? Make sense?

Some idea, in code:

class Inspector
   WELCOME = <<-END_WELCOME.gsub(/^\s+/, "").chomp
   Welcome to the inspector screen
   ~~~~~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~
   0:- Inspectors, ready to enter your details?
   q:- quit!
   enter your choice (0,q) :
   END_WELCOME
   DETAILS = %w{fname sname company dept team empno mobileno}

   def initialize
     DETAILS.each { |var| instance_variable_set("@#{var}", nil) }
   end

   def enter?( input )
     case input
     when "0"
       true
     else
       false
     end
   end

   def build
     DETAILS.each do |var|
       answer = yield var
       instance_variable_set("@#{var}", answer) unless answer.empty?
     end
   end
end

if __FILE__ == $0
   inspector = Inspector.new
   p inspector

   print Inspector::WELCOME
   if inspector.enter? $stdin.gets.to_s.chomp
     puts "Entering details capturing session"
     inspector.build do |var|
       print "#{var}:  "
       $stdin.gets.to_s.chomp
     end
   else
     puts "about to quit!"
   end

   p inspector
end

Hopefully that gets you going.

James Edward Gray II