From: Robert Klemme <bob.news@...>
Date: 2006-03-12T23:38:44+09:00
Subject: Re: Help me understand why the Ruby block is slower than wit

Alan Burch <orotone@gmail.com> wrote:
> Others:
> Any input as to why it runs slower inside the file block? Have I
> overlooked something simple?

I'm not sure whether this question has been answered yet.  It's probably 
slower because you do not close the file handle in your first version (more 
precisely, you close it only if there is an error, which doesn't happen the 
way you did it).

f = File.open("./words")
begin
 ...
rescue EOFError
  f.close
end

If you wanted it to be equivalent with the block version "f.close" would 
have to go to an "ensure" section.
Generally he block form is preferred because it closes the file handle. 
Your first version didn't do that.

This is probably what I'd do

IO.foreach("wordlist") do |line|
  line.scan /\b\w{11}\b/ do |word|
    puts word unless /(.).*\1/ =~ word
  end
end

The first regexp finds all words with length 11 and the second excludes all 
words that contain repeting characters. HTH

Kind regards

    robert