From: Sean O'Halpin <sean.ohalpin@...>
Date: 2006-06-17T12:26:10+09:00
Subject: Re: API style preference? a.b=c or a(:b=>c)

On 6/16/06, Kirk Haines <khaines@enigo.com> wrote:
>
> zoom.Foo = :bar
>
> zoom(:Foo => :bar)
>
> Preference?
>
I prefer the zoom(:Foo => :bar) interface.

The reason I prefer it is because you can more easily define your
constants in a config file (e.g. YAML) and because it lets you define
multiple constants at the same time.

BTW, I don't think you ~can~ freeze nil. At least, it seems to have no effect.

Here's a quickie implementation (with deep_freeze paranoia):

class Object
  def deep_freeze
    if self.respond_to? :each
      self.each do |i|
        i.deep_freeze
      end
    end
    self.freeze
  end
end
class String
  def deep_freeze
    freeze
  end
end
class Object
  def constant(hash)
    target = self.kind_of?(Module) ? self : self.class
    hash.each do |key, value|
      target.const_set(key, value.deep_freeze) unless target.const_defined? key
    end
  end
end

constant(:DocRootNames => [nil,'docs','doc','htdocs','htdoc'])
constant(:DocRootNames => ['something', 'else'])

constant :DocRootNames => ['again'],
  :Other => 42,
  :AndAgain => (1..42)

p DocRootNames
p Other
p AndAgain

module Foo
  constant :Bar => :Baz
end
module Foo
  constant :Bar => :Boo
end
p Foo::Bar

class Moo
  constant :Cow => 42
end
class Moo
  constant :Cow => 24
end
p Moo::Cow

__END__
[nil, "docs", "doc", "htdocs", "htdoc"]
42
1..42
:Baz
42

(Apologies for the appalling names! :)

Regards,
Sean