From: Dave Burt <dave@...>
Date: 2006-10-10T04:15:14+09:00
Subject: Re: || explanation in ruby... in pseudolanguage

Tuka Opaleye wrote:
> Thanks for the input guys. This really helps.

You're welcome. Glad to be of service.

> Sorry about the confusion with OR, I forgot that || actually means OR in 
> most languages.

This one, too. "var ||= default" is a common Ruby idiom.

> I have heard |var| called goal-post notation (I think it was in a ROR 
> podcast...) - is that what you call it ? I owuld guess another valid 
> name is something with the word "pipes".

I haven't referred to them as goal-posts personally, but it's used
around the traps.

I'd just call them "block arguments" or "block parameters."

Why and his cat Trady Blix call the pipes surrounding the argument list
a chute. See the subheading Blocks in Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby,
Ch. 4, Sec. 4:

http://www.poignantguide.net/ruby/chapter-4.html#section4

Cheers,
Dave